RFID Based Locks For Home Defense

Recently, some legal changes in storage requirements have forced a reassessment of behavior. As a believer in self-defense, my family has several defensive tools (weapons) around our home.

Laws where we live regarding weapons are designed to politically frustrate more than solve any real (or in most cases an imagined) social concern. This new law is no different and our liability has changed significantly. The onus has switched from the bad actor to the victim, and so we need to do more than just lock our doors or keep our weapons hidden.

All of our secure storage has some form of locking mechanism. And almost all secure storage has a physical key. Even electronic locks will often have a mechanical override. Identifying and safely storing the keys has now become an issue. We have somewhat resolved this through storing them in what are hopefully more secure safes. The locks come with at least 2 keys that we split among other safes. So we distribute the keys among 3 electronic safes by proximity and consistently label the locks and keys. Each electronic safe has 2 override keys themselves, and so they get distributed among the other electronic safes. So we have at most 3 locations to search for the keys, but the keys should be always be in the nearest electronic safe. When an electronic safe dies, we can still open it with keys from one of the other electronic safes.

We also divide our storage into immediate access by RFID for immediate home defense and longer term storage by other locking systems. We have tried finger print and access code based locks, however they take time to access. Even the best fingerprint readers we tried would take multiple attempts. Access codes also are difficult to remember and enter when fumbling around in the dark. So the best solution we have is RFID. Other than the noise of the unlocking itself, they are quick and quiet to access in the middle of the night.

Hornady AR Locker Rapid Safe

RPNB Keypad RFID Lock Gun Safe

Most of these RFID systems use 13.56MHz. There are also 125KHz ID systems and various standards with different forms of encryption. There are even less popular variations on frequency usually between 100KHz-1MHz. The electronics are commonly made by NXP or TI and reader/writers are openly available. Many of the writers come with decryption software to help break and clone common RFID key formats.

We have several RFID keys that we have cloned to help centralize our own access management. There are many rings, bracelets, cards, etc. that can contain multiple chips to store different IDs in one device. An RFID chip in a capsule embedded in their skin, similar to pet trackers is slowly becoming popular with security specialists. There are companies that promote this and it can be more convenient than keeping something in your wallet or on your body. I would be concerned about cloning still and even capsule damage. One of our pets managed to destroy his capsule and the chip is still detectable somewhere in him, but it does not respond with an ID.

Jakcom R3 RFID ring
I recommend the R3 ring from Jakcom, but they come unprogrammed.

RFID is also popularly available for door locks, gates, and other entry access systems as well. Many modern automotive locks use a form and so do many public transit cards. Most of these devices are inductive as this allows for minimal interference and less risk of cloning. However, there are also far field or longer range systems at higher frequencies (ie. toll roads).

These systems have the possibility that they are or will be hacked for at least cloning purposes. The main reason corporations utilize RFID is to monitor and log all access attempts. In response, I expect that secure access will involve both facial recognition and RFID in the near future. I will be discussing CCTV security and facial recognition soon; though, I am not quite ready to fully implement that for our home.