Homes, businesses and other critical infrastructure are often locked with outdated technology that offers only the appearance of security. While expensive lock systems may offer several minutes of penetration resistance, most locks can be breached by skilled thieves in seconds. Electronic locks can be bypassed without knowledge of the code, and master-key systems can be decoded.
Generally, a key or combination presents information to a lock. Using the tentative method of lock-picking, a lock-picker extracts other information from a lock in such a way to present an effective key or combination faster than using a brute-force approach. For instance, a lock-picker may bypass the presentation of a valid key. As an example, in a classic electronic lock, the combination can be compared to one or more valid codes. If the code is deemed valid, then a signal is generated to move a bolt by means of a servomotor. However, a lock-picker may bypass the need for a valid code simply by causing the bolt to move by a different trigger, such as, for example, independently energizing the solenoid.
The present disclosure describes, among other things, a way to actuate an electromechanical lock using one or more transducers according to cryptographically filtered information that is presented by one or more factors of authentication. This approach is in contrast to directly actuating a bolt or other locking mechanism, as is common with traditional electromechanical locks. In addition, the methods of unlocking an electromechanical lock described in this disclosure are accomplished without the lock having access to its access code. Unlike traditional electromechanical locks that store an access code in memory and compare provided key codes to the stored access code to determine if they are the same, the locks described in this disclosure do not store or otherwise have access to their access codes because authorizing a provided key code is not performed based on a comparison to an access code. Rather, the provided key code is used to generate movement instructions that either cause the lock's locking mechanisms to move to a position that unlocks the lock if the provided key code is valid, or cause the lock's locking mechanisms to a position that does not unlock the lock if the provided key code is not valid. As such, the locks described in this disclosure are less susceptible to hacking and unauthorized access because the information known by and/or stored by the lock, even if breached, would be of little to no use to a lock-picker.