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> Imagine your government made it mandatory to leave keys in a certain place so police could enter a property in a hurry. I'm sure this actually happened somew

> Imagine your government made it mandatory to leave keys in a certain place so police could enter a property in a hurry. I'm sure this actually happened somewhere in the US... it might just have been proposed but I distinctly remember reading about mailbox-like containers at the bottom of drives locked with a master key. Does anyone else? Edit: More than once apparently, "lockbox" was the term I was missing when googling earlier: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/update-cedar-falls-city-council-oks-controversial-lock-box-ordinance/article_64b970a2-9624-11e0-93e5-001cc4c002e0.html http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/update-cedar-falls-city-cou... http://archive.northjersey.com/community-news/2.4225/rescuers-don-t-need-to-break-in-1.1414551?page=all http://archive.northjersey.com/community-news/2.4225/rescuer...

dom0 9y ago
These are fairly standard in larger building complexes in Germany. We call them Feuerwehrschlüsseldepot (key depot for the fire dept.); they're very well secured, both physically and organizationally.
teddyh 9y ago
I remember reading about those; allegedly, those are used by estate agents when showing houses for sale. Apparently those boxes are often really easy to break into.
- cratermoon 9y ago
  Current state of the art in real estate lockboxes includes wireless technology so the devices can communicate usage. They are in the IoT space of vulnerabilities.
dwyerm 9y ago
You might also be thinking of a Knox Box. A key securely stored in a firetruck can be used to open a small box on your property, which contains a master key for the facility. As scary as that sounds, it isn't /completely/ stupid. The system is designed to make using this backdoor is exceptionally noisy. Your Knox Box should have a tamper switch inside, so that any time it is opened, alarms go off. At the other end, when the key is removed from a firetruck for use, alarms go off.

dom0 9y ago

These are fairly standard in larger building complexes in Germany. We call them Feuerwehrschlüsseldepot (key depot for the fire dept.); they're very well secured, both physically and organizationally.

teddyh 9y ago

I remember reading about those; allegedly, those are used by estate agents when showing houses for sale. Apparently those boxes are often really easy to break into.

cratermoon 9y ago
Current state of the art in real estate lockboxes includes wireless technology so the devices can communicate usage. They are in the IoT space of vulnerabilities.

dwyerm 9y ago

You might also be thinking of a Knox Box. A key securely stored in a firetruck can be used to open a small box on your property, which contains a master key for the facility. As scary as that sounds, it isn't /completely/ stupid. The system is designed to make using this backdoor is exceptionally noisy. Your Knox Box should have a tamper switch inside, so that any time it is opened, alarms go off. At the other end, when the key is removed from a firetruck for use, alarms go off.