Friday, July 16, 2010: 7:00 pm (Tesla): Hotels have some very unique requirements for locks. Their systems must support many mastered levels of access, accommodate frequent turnover and reissuing of keys, enforce duration limits for access, and do all of this with relatively low cost. For this reason, most hotels around the world have moved away from purely mechanical keys and instead rely on magstripes, perforated cards, etc. These systems are still hackable, however, and other bypasses abound in hotel rooms... so don't think that simply locking the door after hanging a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it can provide all the privacy needed when you invite someone back to your room later!

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