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Comment by Chirael | Hacker News Reader

It's a good point; once you start thinking about it you realize that the locks are only a (small) part of overall security. For example, can someone break a nearby window pane and unlock the door? Can they bust open the door with a strong kick? Are the windows on the second floor (for a house) always locked? A good book on this topic, about how differently thieves think about space and common security features, is "A Burglar's Guide to the City".

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You’re generally trying to make a burglar rob somebody else’s house instead of your own, which is why things like visible cameras, nighttime lighting, and dogs are more important than locks.

You can’t really defend against a determined adversary. I lived down the road from somebody who had a significant collection of rare coins. He had good locks, hardened doors, and a state of the art security system which was bypassed by using a chainsaw to cut a hole in the wall of his house.

Also, some security mechanisms can make your home less safe by making it difficult to escape in the event of a fire. A fireman once told me he’s seen people die in fires because there were security bars over the windows and they couldn’t get out.

I've thought about that a lot recently as I have a double cylinder deadbolt I want to replace our single cylinder one with, since the door has 3 panes of glass that can be easily smashed allowing the single deadbolt to then be easily opened.

Sounds great until you think about a fire situation. I think we're just going to keep an extra key very close by but that solution only works because we don't have kids; I'm not sure I would go with the double cylinder deadbolt if we did.

(And yes I know it's against the building code but I also know people regularly do double cylinders on their own personal homes. You'd never do it in a rental, AirBnB or commercial building of course.)

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