Electronic security is quickly making its way into every corner of the security industry. What began as a trickle twenty years ago has now become a steady stream of new product introductions. The first noticeable change happened in the hotel industry. Card access has become a normal part of hotel locking systems except for the very smallest rental cabin units deep in the back woods. Electronic automotive security quickly followed and few new cars sold today do not have some type of transponder security. It is a must in Canada.
Electronic safe were first introduced in quantity approximately twenty years ago. Every popular safe manufacturer now offers the option of furnishing either an electronic or mechanical safe lock for their safe cabinets.
Yale Locks & Hardware, an Assa Abloy Group Company, has just introduced the "cylinderless deadbolt." The announcement continues, "The new lock provides a major upgrade in security by eliminating the most vulnerable element of the lock. Through the absence of the cylinder, lock picking and bumping are virtually impossible." This new Yale deadbolt lock has a touch screen for manual operation and also contains a modular design for receiving locking and unlocking instructions from web-enabled devices.
When electronic versions of automotive locks and hotel locks were invented, a key bypass system was incorporated as a backup in case of electronic malfunction. Lock cylinders were located in odd places like under a snap-off cover on VW door handles or on the bottom of the escutcheon plate on some hotel locks. But they were there. Up until now, virtually every single door accesss control lock in existence has a bypass cylinder as standard equipment.
Most electronic safe locks do not have a key bypass system. When a safe lock fails, the only option is to drill. Safe companies or inventive locksmiths have discovered places to drill usually in some area where a probe could be inserted to move the safe lock to an unlocked position. If the new Yale Cylinderless Lock is any indication of future trends, a whole new chapter in drill points for commercial locks is about to be written.
