Jack Schofield
The lock on your front door could soon be so small you’ll need a microscope to see it. And if that sounds insecure, bear in mind that what its inventors claim is the “world’s smallest combination lock” will also be fitted inside computers to keep hackers away.
It could also be used in smart cards and all sorts of consumer electronics products.
The “recodable locking device” has been developed by researchers at the United States government’s Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The idea came from Larry Dalton, manager of Sandia’s high-integrity software systems engineering department.
The lock is a micro-electromechanical system that looks like a microchip. It consists of a series of code wheels, each less than 300 microns in diameter, turned by electrostatic comb drives to interrupt an electrical connection.
The code wheels can be set to any value from one to a million. To open the lock, the right number must be entered first time. After one failed try, the device mechanically shuts down and can’t be reset and reopened except by the owner.
The lock is built into a microchip only 9,4mm by 4,7mm, so hundreds can be manufactured on a 15cm silicon wafer. Sandia expects it to be ready for sale in about two years.
Peter Sommer, a security expert and computer forensics research fellow at the London School of Economics, is sceptical.
“It sounds very ingenious, but I just don’t see how it’s going to work. The designers seem to have no idea how security breaches actually occur.”
Dalton says the system isn’t finished yet. “We plan to integrate, in the same silicon foundation, smart electronics to do things like data validation and tracking of the data that goes in and out, to provide a robust, flexible access system.”
Micro-electromechanical systems are already used in devices ranging from disposable blood pressure sensors to the print heads in ink-jet printers.