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Comment by cortesoft | Hacker News Reader

I totally appreciate geeking out on something like this, and take no issue with people who are really into these locks.

However.

I find this argument to be a bit silly:

> If you get in without my notice, you may be lying in wait for me inside.

The risk to the average person for this type of threat is so low, that you are more likely to die because you fall in your shower and rescuers can't get through your door than an assassin lying in wait inside your house to get you when you walk in.

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I see your point, but I disagree to an extent.

Emergency services should probably assume permissions to kick in your front door if necessary to save your life, I'd certainly give that permission if required explicitly.

That said, the real point is that emergency services don't need to be surreptitious, they're also welcome to put a brick, axe or anything they have to hand through my living room window if that serves the same purpose (assuming my front door was too tough to kick in, etc).

Yeah, emergency services picking a lock is probably not a realistic scenario, but probably not that much more unrealistic than an assassin picking your lock and waiting in your house to kill you.

Sometimes emergency services will try simple lock raking or lock/door bypasses in an effort to not destroy the lock/door unnecessarily, as it can put a financial burden on the occupant. I think in some circles they refer to this as "respectful entry", e.g. https://coastalfiretraining.com/

Fire departments have great (destructive) tools for forcible entry.

Yeah, no lock will slow someone down if they don't care about the noise.

You need some serious walls and doors before you get something that can't be opened with the fire truck. It'll make a hella noise, though.

The "lying in wait" argument, to me, feels like it assumes that the door I enter through is really the only point of access. It may be obvious if someone broke in through the front door or the window next to it, but it might be weeks before I notice if someone forced the garage door and gained access there. There are several points of access that I wouldn't notice before it was too late for a lying in wait type attack. Most of those would require breaking glass though.

True, but not everyone is an average person. Kidnapping is a concern in some places, some people are famous and controversial, etc.

Sure, but even then, are most kidnappings from home?

Those people would usually have security staff though to prevent that kind of thing.

Those are just a couple examples that first popped into my head. Seems like maybe a few people could be in a middle ground in threat level and resources between "get a better lock" and "hire a security staff."

Related concept for digital security: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf

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