Electronic Safe - The Facts And Security Risks You Need To Know

Some premier names in electronic safes are HDC, Kramer, Stack-On and Sentry electronic safe. Pro-Lok, Advance, Winchester and VGS also make different models including wall safes, drop safes, and safes specific for gun storage and safety.

Electronic wall safes are easy because they allow for a keyless entry. These types of safes are made available to you in many hotel rooms or in cabins on cruise ships. You can create a digital code, or use a credit card magnetic strip to activate your lock. Anyone with the key code or access to the credit card can enter the safe.

But just how safe are these safes?

A simple search on youtube reveals hundreds of videos of all kinds of safes from manual to the electronic pistol safe, showing lock picking, lock bumping, and electronic lock break ins. With simple tools such as paperclips and batteries a child could learn how to easily crack just about any locking mechanism on the market.

Nothing is crime-proof, nothing is invincible. If someone wants to get into your electronic safe, or any other lock for that matter badly enough, they can and they will.

However, you can select a safe that isn’t the easiest to crack, making it less likely for intruders to break into it successfully.

Some electronic safes use the most cutting edge technology. The biometric gun safe utilizes fingerprint recognition technology and is considered very secure.

However, the more common electronic safe that is used as a money safe in your home or hotel room is not biometric. It’s simply an electronic programmable lock.

Many informational sites claim that the old fashioned manual dial lock is stronger, safer, and lasts a lifetime, while electronic locks can’t compare. The one advantage of an electronic lock is the speed with which you can open up your safe. A conventional dial lock takes a lot longer.

One thing the two types of safe share, is a non-key entry. If you have a multi-person office or home where several different people need to be able to access the safe regularly, having a combination on a lock, or having a digital key pad eliminates needing a key. This may not sound like a big deal, but making sure to have that safe key with you, or copied for a new employee, or recollected from a former employee, can be very cumbersome.

An electronic safe lock on the other hand can easily be reprogrammed with a new code you can punch into the keypad. This makes key distribution and collection obsolete. There is no arguing the convenience of an electronic safe. The only argument seems to be the safety.

Emergency locksmiths often charge more for regular contracts ad even one time visits for electronic safe locks as opposed to other types of manual locks since there are so many more things that break or go wrong with electronic locks. They say it is not a matter of if your electronic safe will one day fail, they all will in time. Dial combination locks on the other hand, have been around 150 years, still cost less, and tend not to break down.

The electronic safes provided for you in hotel rooms and cruise cabins are set to release with the recognition of an electronic strip of your credit card in addition to selecting a password or pass-code on a key pad. If you’ve ever used one of these safes and then forgot the code you selected or had trouble getting the magnetic strip on your credit card to read correctly, you’ve had to call for assistance from management. It is important to note the ease with which the crew or staff can access your personal safe. Your safe items may be “safe” from most of the other guests but the hotel staff or ship crew still has easy access. And what about the people that make and install these safes, or the people that took 4 minutes to watch a youtube video on hacking an electronic safe.

It is better than nothing to utilize the electronic safe provided for you in your guest accommodations. But when selecting a home safe, an electronic gun safe may be convenient, but it isn’t the safest most effective way to protect your valuables. If a state of the art biometric safe is out of the question, then an old fashioned dial combination lock is still your best bet for safety.