Automation has been incorporated into our lives in many ways: automatic garage doors have evolved from regular electric ones that use basic code technology to the modern, remote control powered models that are password protected, but this does not necessarily mean that thieves and burglars have been defeated for good. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, as they have started to become more creative and ingenious when it comes to ways of breaking into your home.
As technology advances and security improves, so do the techniques delinquents use to violate private property, and as automated devices become more prevalent, thieves continue to come up with new ways of hacking into an automatic garage door systems and entering into our homes.
Hand transmitters, basic materials and even toys, which are further improvised to opening a garage door very easy easily, are amongst the devices of choice some people use to break into a garage in less than 15 seconds, with the application of very little to no force whatsoever.
After WWII, garage openers were made in a way that allows homeowners to simply push a button or keypad from their car to make the garage door open or close. The process was rather stressful as a wire ran from the keypad to the switch on the garage door but when technology further improved, a wireless remote control was introduced, meaning that when you pressed a button, a code was transmitted to the opener from the remote control, using radio signals that made the garage door motor draw the door down or up as the opener received the command.
When electric garage door openers went mainstream in the 1960’s, garage door companies and even homeowners realized that it was easy for security systems to be breached and the property burgled, as all the automatic garage doors created at the time used the same code.
Later, codes became more sophisticated and allowed people to secure their garage door system by making use of a three-character alphanumeric passcode of any combination, which eventually got figured out by burglars as well.
Some thieves go as far as to acquire rather sophisticated equipment to facilitate their illegal activities, from modified children’s electronics to password scanners and hand transmitters, which they use to quickly hack into your garage door opener.
But technology is now even more sophisticated and these hacks may not necessarily be such a massive threat. However, there are still lots of garage doors that use dip-switch old models and basic codes that can be sent from just any standard remote control. Further, the newest garage doors that are opened with WiFi controllers or belong into the IoT realm are especially successful to cyber-attacks from cybercriminals who can not only hack into your garage opener but into your entire smart home system.