Is Your Garage Door Opener Vulnerable To A Hack?

Someone can hack your garage door in 10 seconds: Is that possible?

Lately, you can see a lot of articles and reports circulating on the web that mentions the fact that a garage door equipped with an electric door opener can be opened with a hack kid toy. That’s right! It’s important that you understand that this may happen to you as well. The motor in your garage door opener is provided with a receiving module for any waves transmitted by a remote transmitter. You press the button on your remote control, it sends a wave, and then, activates your opener.

Also, be aware that garage door openers fabricated by most manufacturers and manufactured before 1993 were equipped with a dip switch system (+, 0, – ) to program its issuer. Then, you opened the case of your transmitter and you moved the dip switch to code your opener.

How to protect yourself against that?

Try to locate the fabrication date on your garage door opener. This information can be found on the motor box, along with the model number and the device’s serial number. You can also look on your remote transmitter to see if the words SECURITY+ or Rolling Code can be found. If this is the case, know that your door opener has the built in rolling code technology. This means that after every single use of your garage door, the code on your transmitter changes. The technology has about 1 million possible code options.

LiftMaster^TM and Chamberlain companies offer this rolling code system since 1993. In 1996, they started to offer the Security+ System, and since 2013, they offer the MyQ technology Security+2.0 which allows to open and close your garage door with your smartphone. It’s the most practical technology yet!

Other security measures to consider?

We invite you to read our article regarding the security of your garage door opener. Remember that most people use their garage door as their main entrance. If you are using an external keypad (4-digit access code), it’s important to keep the code a secret and to not share in with anyone you don’t know or trust. At best, change the code at least once a year, as you do for the password of your computer.

At any time, if you’re not sure about the fabrication year on your garage door opener or if you’re uncertain that you have the proper security system, contact a garage door specialist. He’ll guide you through the process and present you with the best options for your safety needs. This will give you peace of mind and you’ll never worry about having an intruder break into your home by hacking your garage in seconds.