What Is A Security Key?

A security key is a tool that helps protect your online accounts by verifying your identity. Unlike a password, which can be guessed or stolen, a security key provides an extra layer of security. It can be a small physical device you plug into your computer or a digital key that works via NFC or Bluetooth. Security keys make it much harder for hackers to access your accounts, keeping your information safer.

What is the difference between a key and a security key?

Well, the manufacturers of keys and locks designate certain profiles of keys as security sections, and what that means in practice is that you can’t just pop out to your local supermarket key cutter and get one cut.

You may be wondering why that should be.

There are lots of instances where a building owner may want to keep control over who has keys. It may be that a landlord wants to ensure that their tenants don’t have an extra key cut for a friend. It might be that a commercial building owner doesn’t want the cleaner to cut a key for someone who might then come back when the building is empty and burgle it.

So how do legitimate requests for keys get fulfilled?

What instead you have to do is to produce a letter of authority from the owner of the key. We keep that letter on file, and this then authorises you to have a key cut. It’s necessary to have a new letter of authority on each occasion that a key needs to be cut.

It is also necessary for the letter to be signed in ink, it must bear an actual signature. It is too easy for software to produce a letter with a company’s logo at the top, and a name at the bottom, in order to circumvent the restriction. The letter can be scanned and emailed to us, but it must have an actual signature.

Now, in some instances there’s another level of security and these are registered security keys and in that instance, not only do you need to have a letter of authority, but that letter has to be signed by certain signatories, which we then have to compare to the registration card which we hold on file.

So if you come in to us and we say sorry, you need a letter of authority. I’m sorry. We’re not being awkward. The owner of the key has decided that they want that particular facility, and it is our duty to them to uphold their requirements.

Amberley Security offer key cutting services to people in Portsmouth and the surrounding areas.