In the 21st century, security is important to protect your safety and identity. You protect your devices with passwords, pins, facial recognition and thumbprints. You invest in car alarms and upgraded security protections to safeguard your car.
Your garage door is no different. It protects your home, not to mention the safety and security of your family. The garage door is the largest entrance on the home. Your garage contains expensive gardening, sports equipment, and vehicles. And just as your device can be hacked, so can your garage door.
The truth is that garage door hackers have become smarter, so protecting yourself is critical.
Can Garage Door Openers Be Hacked?
Yes, your garage door can be hacked. Garage door hackers focus on your garage door opener and the remote you use to open it. When you click a button on your garage door remote, it sends a signal to the opener using low-frequency waves. Some garage door openers are easier to hack than others. It all depends on the interaction between opener and remote.
Technology advances — unfortunately, so do the hackers. As soon as the first garage door openers were invented, hackers began exploiting vulnerabilities. In the early days, this was as simple as buying any garage door opener and opening the door. Companies fought against this by introducing security features.
Fortunately, modern advancements in garage door openers make hacking difficult.
Fixed Code Garage Door Openers
Fixed code garage door openers were the earliest safeguard against hackers. They use radio waves to function and operate at a frequency of 300-400 megahertz (MHz). Fixed code garage door openers utilize 8 to 12 little switches inside the opener and the remote to set a code. Users set the code by sliding these dip switches into the up or down position. It works like a code on a gate but uses radio signals to interact with the remote. The remote applies the same code to both sets of dip switches to communicate with the garage door opener.
But with trial and error, and even more complex computer hacking programs, these codes are easily broken.
Rolling Garage Door Openers
The next evolution in garage door opener security was rolling codes. In the mid-90s, manufacturers used a rolling code, or hopping code to continually change the code and make it harder for hackers to hack. Rolling code openers create a new security code each time you work your garage door opener.
Smart Garage Doors & Secure WiFi
If you use a smart garage door opener, it is critical you keep your WiFi secure. Since your mobile device is connected to your garage door opener via WiFi, if hackers can hack your WiFi, they can exploit your garage door. Always keep a secure WiFi password — a phrase only you know with at least 4 non sequential numbers and two symbols.