Every now and again we are asked the question “can we remotely unlock things with Teleporte?” We understand where the question comes from. Most IoT devices are focused on remote sensing or control from a distance. Smart devices allow you to do things like set your home’s temperature from the other side of the world. It’s easy to assume that smart locks should behave in a similar way.
We often get asked to include this feature but we have purposefully built Teleporte so that a person is required in the physical presence of the device. We wanted to render unlocking something remotely from a command center impossible. And it is important for you, our customers to understand why.
Practical Risks
First, we do allow you to remotely enable a user, so there is no argument for someone new or unexpected needing access. In what situation then would you want to release a lock without an individual there? We can’t think of a practical scenario. Having someone on-site means that when the lock is opened the asset is being watched the whole time. Someone can close a gate behind them, reducing the time an asset is not secured. And most importantly, a person on-site can lock up again. Many locks are designed to fall or pop open when unlocked, and without someone there to close them, a remote unlock function would not guarantee a corresponding and critical lock function.
Second, you don’t just want anyone on site when access is granted: you want to know who is getting in. With a remote unlock, there is little guarantee that the person going into a site is the one who is supposed to be. Smartphones are actually very sophisticated to identify a user with passwords and biometrics and their location with GPS. A local virtual key is much more reliable than a remote unlock process.
Cybersecurity
Finally, we want to mitigate the risks of hacking and cybercrime. In 2019, artificial intelligence designed and carried out more cyberattacks than people did. The attacks are getting more sophisticated. At Sera4, we use the best cybersecurity practices, but no one can predict everything. If there is a logical path to remotely unlock something, there is a risk that it will happen; be it a sophisticated hacking attack or something as innocent as an error in an API integration. Imagine the catastrophe if the locks on a critical infrastructure network were all remotely opened at the same time. We designed Teleporte to ensure that this is impossible.
We appreciate the excitement around technical feasibility and fancy features such as remote unlock, but every feature comes at a cost. Our goal is to the safety and security of our systems first, ensuring less risk and more reliability to you.