Smart Door Lock and Keys : Behind the technology

The Smart Key : What makes it special ? 

[NICOLAS PICHOT, Lead Product Manager, Netatmo]  

“People are afraid of having their keys stolen, afraid of having their locks picked. Today, conventional keys can be easily copied using just a photo. So, at Netatmo, rather than scrapping it completely, we asked ourselves: how can we make this key better and solve all these problems we’re seeing? One of the benefits of the Netatmo Key is that you can take back full control of your Door Lock. There’s no need to visit the locksmiths to make a copy of your key, because you can easily add or remove Keys. You can manage everything from the comfort of your own home using the app, without compromising on security, because we meet the highest security standards available for NFC, similar to those used for bankcards or biometric passports.” 

Design and concept: How do you prioritise security in development? 

[ROMAIN CAZALIS, VP Hardware Development, Netatmo]  

“The Smart Door Lock is without a doubt the most ambitious product developed by Netatmo. In terms of complexity, robustness, it has various mechanical parts, creating a highly intricate system. We explored new technologies, new materials, and new processes that we weren’t familiar with and had to develop. On the security side of things, we didn't want to make any compromises in the design of the Smart Door Lock whether that’s computing, electronics, or mechanics; it's really a whole package, a complete chain. We quickly checked with locksmith standards, partners and certification laboratories. From a mechanical standpoint, we use anti-drilling pins with extremely tough materials. It's the very best in locksmithing today. Metal microbeads coated with a thin layer of plastic are injected into a mould. This part is then placed in an oven, where the plastic evaporates and the metal melts and reforms. The result is tough stainless steel parts that are resistant to corrosion. Of course, we carried out temperature tests, ranging from -40°C to +85°C. We also conducted salt spray tests, robustness tests, attempted break-ins, and we tried to drill into and break into the lock.”

[NICOLAS PICHOT, Lead Product Manager, Netatmo]  

“When it came to designing the Key, we worked closely with our designers, iterating on several versions, to come up with a design that is ultimately quite familiar, quite timeless, in stainless steel, that will stand the test of time. We had to combine this tubular key with a spiral antenna, and that took a lot of work. In terms of software, we usually work with a partner, Synacktiv, who helps us with the design so that we can meet the the highest cybersecurity standards.” 

[TIPHAINE ROMAND-LATAPIE, Reverse Engineering Lead, Synacktiv] 

“I manage the Reverse Engineering team at a company called Synacktiv. 
We hack into our customers' networks or products to help them secure their systems. In 2023, we took part in an international hacking contest called Pwn2Own, where we demonstrated an attack on a famous electric car brand that allowed us to control the opening of the doors, the boot, the windscreen wipers and radio via a Bluetooth connection. 

Netatmo came to us quite early in the development of the Door Lock. We have what we call development locks, through which we can access all the Lock's electronics and microcode, and we try to identify vulnerabilities where an attacker could get in. What we saw was that Netatmo takes cybersecurity issues very seriously in its products,and even more so in a product like the Smart Door Lock.The Netatmo Smart Door Lock has two interesting security features:

1. The fact it does not connect to the internet. It’s never connected to the internet; at most, it communicates with a smartphone via Bluetooth. And that's a very interesting choice from asecurity point of view.
2. Secondly, the Smart Door Lock and Keys make extensive use of cryptography. Cryptography, is based on secrets, and these secrets must be protected. In the Smart Door Lock, these secrets are stored in a small secure component called a “Secure Element” and they never leave it.”