Security – its pretty important.
Today we're going to talk about 2 methods of securing your stuff.
One is this high-tech fingerprint scanning padlock from Tapplock.
We'll see if we can physically hack our way into it and see how it works.
And the second is securing yourself online or on your cell phone with a VPN.
Huge thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring this video.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
Unlocking smartphones with fingerprints has been around for years now.
It's effective and pretty darn efficient.
Today we have a padlock that can use a fingerprint to unlock – the Tapplock One.
It seems pretty high tech.
It's been seen on CNN, Unbox Therapy, and raised over $300,000 on IndieGoGo last year
before going into production.
And like always, on my channel we're going to see how it works...from the inside.
You might be thinking to yourself, 'Hey Jerry, it seems pretty cool, why shouldn't I buy
it?'
Well, let me tell you.
The little guy has a proprietary charging port and a power button down at the bottom...nothing
wrong with that yet.
One click of the power button activates the fingerprint scanner which allows you to scan
one of your fingers and unlock the lock.
Pretty simple, right?
I'm a fan of it so far.
The little contraption can hold 500 different fingerprints and has a 1 year battery life.
It's even IP66 water resistant.
So as long as your treasure chest isn't locked up underwater, it'll still work just fine
in the rain or the elements.
Thumbs up for all of that so far.
Plus, the whole thing is made from metal, which makes you think it would be hard to
get inside of, but sit tight and let's find out.
Scratching up the face revealed the whole front of the lock with solid metal.
And the sides are also metal.
And even the back of the Tapplock is metal, with no visible openings...or so I thought.
At first it didn't appear that the back was removable – it wouldn't pry off when I tried.
Before I break out the heavy artillery though and review this from the inside, let's scratch
the fingerprint scanner.
A few initial scratches and the lock still opens just fine.
You can hear the little motor inside motoring up the shackle and unlocking the padlock.
Even after a few more scratches, the lock still functions.
So far it appears to be solidly constructed, durable, and secure...or so, at least that's
what I thought.
Let's keep going.
I broke out the dremel to gauge the thickness of the metal, but trying to cut through the
stainless steel and advertised anti-shim and anti-pry design, my dremel just wasn't making
it through the body.
Even dremeling through the fingerprint scanner itself, there was zero ways for a hacker to
unlock the lock and steal your stuff, like your bike or your sweaty gym clothes, from
this side.
It was only after I brought out the big guns that I find the fatal flaw in Tapplock's design.
[Drilling sounds]
Got it!
It was about here that I realized that the back panel of the lock wasn't secured at all.
Right next to that sliced in half lithium ion battery.
It just falls away from that lock.
Apparently I was opening it wrong before.
It doesn't pry off – it's a twist-to-unlock like a jar.
I couldn't see that until I had a view from the inside.
I'll be testing my twist off theory in a second.
Digging deeper, there were three normal Phillips head screws on the back half of the lock.
And once those were unscrewed, the face of the lock fell away revealing more normal Phillips
head screws and a metal plate covering the motor.
Once those were gone and I got inside, I can lift up the locking bar in the center, and
the shackle comes completely free from the housing exposing your goods to the world.
If my theory is correct, anyone with a simple screwdriver could hack this lock in under
30 seconds.
So should we try it?
Yeah.
We should.
I went out and bought another $100 brand new Tapplock, available on New Egg and Best Buy,
opened up the box and twisted off the back of the lock like an expensive cookie jar,
using a GoPro mount.
Revealing a battery and 3 screws.
And in the space of about 30 seconds, I had the front panel off, and it's screws removed,
and the locking bar up and out of the lock housing.
And all of my stuff that was previously locked up in the shackle is now not my stuff anymore.
Obviously a thief walking around with bolt cutters could totally steal your bike in a
bout 30 seconds as well.
But no one is ever going to call the cops on a guy with a screwdriver.
This lock just doesn't do a good job of locking.
Tapplock could easily fix this problem by welding the back shut, or even using proprietary
screws inside instead of a normal Phillips head.
I'll be more than happy to make a follow up video if Tapplock decides to fix these issues
with the next version of their lock.
As of right now though, the lock costs $100 and can easily be hacked in 30 seconds by
anyone with a normal screwdriver and a GoPro mount.
So I just can't really recommend anyone buy it.
Bad guys are always going to find a way to figure out how to do bad stuff, so it's good
to find out from the good guys if there's a flaw or not in the system.
And speaking of good guys, rated Number One Virtual Private Network by PC Magazine, is
NordVPN.
They had nothing to do with this lock situation.
I seriously thought this thing was going to be fine.
A Virtual Private Network does a couple different things.
One, it encrypts your network traffic from one location to the other, so your information
is untrackable when you're on a public Wi-Fi like an airport or hotel.
Everyone knows that Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs can be used on computers, but they
can also be used on cellphones like Androids, and iPhones, and Windows phones.
And with NordVPN, it can secure 6 devices simultaneously: your computer, your laptop,
and all of your cellphones.
And since NordVPN has over 4,000 servers in over 62 different countries, it can appear
like your traffic's coming from anywhere.
And you can get around country specific censorship laws, like in China and the Middle East.
Or if you want to access a YouTube video that's not available in your country, you can just
jump on a different server.
For a totally risk-free trial of NordVPN, you can use discount code 'jerryrig' and get
a 77% discount off of a 3 year plan.
I think it comes down to like 2 dollars and 75 cents a month.
Www.nordvpn/jerryrig and if you don't like it, at least you're protected for those 30
days, and their 24/7 customer support will take care of you either way.
It's probably a lot more secure than this thing was.
If you have any questions, leave them down in the comments.
And if Tapplock ever does any upgrades or updates to their lock to make it more secure,
you'll find out here first.
Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.