Hotel Guests at Risk of Hacked Locks

The Hyatt House Galleria in Houston had a series of break-ins in September due to a flaw in the electronic door locks that made them easy to hack.

PCWorld writes that a similar hack was performed at the Black Hat Security event earlier this year by a Mozilla software developer who demonstrated how easily a Onity hotel room lock could be hacked by using a cheap and easy-to-make device. The hacking device was able to open the lock because it could read the lock’s memory to procure the key information.

Onity started fixing the problem after the reports of break-ins at Hyatt. The lock company is, however, asking the hotels to bear the cost of the process which involves changing the lock’s hardware and circuit board. The other option given by Onity is to attach a free plastic plug on the locks to block the port at the bottom of the lock, according to PCWeek.

Experts believe that not fixing the locks properly due to the high cost involved will leave the rooms even more insecure. The issue remains unresolved between the manufacturers and the hotel owners over who should bear the cost of replacing the faulty locks. Meanwhile, hotel customers and their belongings remain at risk.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by an unsafe product, contact Sokolove Law today for a free legal consultation and to find out if a product liability lawyer may be able to help you.

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