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Why You Need an Access Control System for Your Business

access control

Whether you think your business isn’t big enough for an access control system or you’ve just never considered one, there are many reasons why you need access control for your business. Even the smallest businesses can benefit from the right access control system. Here are some of the best reasons why you need an access control system for your business.

7 Top Reasons to Choose an Access Control System for Your Business

1. Less Theft

Whether you’re worried about a break-in or employee theft, access control systems help to keep theft down. With about $50 billion lost each year due to employee theft, you should be doing anything you can to cut it out of your business.

An access control system offers security you don’t get with any other system. You’ll know who’s coming into your business and who is leaving. This type of control keeps people out and can keep employees out of areas they don’t belong.

2. Restricts Access to Sensitive Areas

Whether you have a server room or an inventory area, you might not want all employees gaining access to these sensitive areas. With the right access control system, you can grant access to only those needing to be in specific areas of your business.

3. Eliminates the Issue of Keys

With an access control system, you never have to worry about a fired employee still having a key or a key getting lost or stolen. Instead, if you use a system with keycards, you can easily deactivate one if it’s lost and easily replace it.

Access control systems can be set up to work with a PIN or even with biometrics, too. This eliminates any need for a keycard or anything physical to gain access to your business.

4. Makes Limited Access Easier

Sometimes, you need to allow vendors or contractors into your business. Maybe you have work you need to get done on one part of the building. You can let people in with limited access very easily with the right access control system.

5. Provides Protection for Employees

With an access control system, you no longer have to worry about someone wandering into your business. They cannot get in without authorization, which offers incredible protection for your employees.

6. Offers Scheduled Access

Even for employees you authorize to be in your business during their work hours, you can keep them out when they are not working. You can create scheduled access, which means those not supposed to be in your business won’t have access to get in.

7. Offers Tracking

If something does happen and you need to figure out who caused it, you can look at the records from your access control system to see who was in that area, especially if it’s a restricted area. This can help you deal with employee theft or a mistake better, whether it means firing someone or retraining them on something they should have known.

There are many great reasons for your business to have an access control system. Even a small retail shop can use a small access control system to keep people out of the inventory areas if they don’t have access. This can be a great way to cut down on theft and keep your business running smoothly.

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5 Common Items to Store in a Home Safe & Why

Home Safe

You finally invested in a home safe, but you’re not sure what you should put in it and what doesn’t really need to go inside your safe. There are plenty of things you may believe are valuable enough to go into your home safe, but you also only have so much room. Let’s look at some of the common items to store in a home safe and why you should put them in your safe.

Is your Safe Fire Proof?

Before we look at the list of items, it’s important to consider the safe you have. A home safe should provide fireproof qualities. The most common reason you will need a safe to protect your belongings is likely a house fire. Yes, a break-in is possible, but many home safes are small enough a criminal could easily take off with them.

Even with a larger home safe that’s too heavy to move, it’s important to make sure it’s fireproof. With a fireproof safe, you gain many more benefits for protecting your most valuable things.

Five Common Items to Store in Your Home Safe

1. Important Documents

Birth certificates, social security cards, titles to property, insurance policies, home pictures, wills, and other important documents can all be store in a fireproof home safe. This will help to protect them in the event of a fire or another disaster. Anything you might need to rebuild your life, if something were to happen, should go in the safe.

Storing important documents in a safe also ensures you don’t have to worry about where they are. They will be in your home safe when you need them.

2. Important Keys

Yes, you probably have plenty of keys on your daily key ring that don’t belong there. Your keyring should have vehicle keys, house keys, and safe keys (if necessary). However, the rest of your keys, such as safe deposit box keys, keys to personal storage unit locks, and other keys you don’t use every day, should go in your home safe.

It’s also smart to keep a spare car key in the safe, just in case.

3. Valuable Jewelry

If you have a $100 bracelet, it probably doesn’t need to go in your home safe. However, if grandma passed down an heirloom worth $1,000 or more and you don’t wear it daily, this type of valuable jewelry can go into your safe. Any valuable jewelry can be stored in your safe.

4. Emergency Cash

Of course, it’s a good idea to have some emergency cash, gold, and silver in your home safe. Any physical currency you own that you don’t need to spend can go in the safe. Many people hold their emergency fund in cash or at least a portion of it, which should be stored in your safe.

5. Guns

While some home safes have room for guns, others will need to go in a gun safe. If you have room in your fireproof home safe, it’s a good place to store a gun.

There are many common items you can and should store in your home safe. It depends on what you consider to be valuable and what you want to protect the most. Make sure you consider all your items and protect the most important things in your home safe.

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Garage Door Security Tips to Prevent Break-ins

Secure Garage Doors

Garage doors are one of the known weak points of any home security system, and what’s worse, most burglars are well aware of that shortcoming, and often seek to exploit it as a primary means of gaining access to your home and its valuables. As a matter of fact, there could hardly be a more ideal break-in situation for a burglar than using your garage, because once inside, the garage can also serve as a shelter to hide criminal activity, and provide a base for any forays into the interior.

Despite this inherent security weakness, any garage and garage door can be made more secure by taking some simple precautions.

  • Out-of-town measures – When you’re on vacation or otherwise out-of-town, make sure to padlock the throw latch on the garage door, and if you don’t have a manual lock already, you can apply a C-clamp to either side of the door, so that’s effectively locked down.
  • Install a peephole – By installing a wide-angle peephole in the door between the garage and your house, you’ll be able to see what’s happening in the garage. While that won’t prevent a security breach, you will at least be aware of what’s happening out there, so that you can quickly call for help, and prepare yourself as best you can.
  • Opaque garage windows – Don’t allow criminals visibility into your garage so they can see when your car is gone, and when your residence is ripe for the picking. Either frost the windows so they’re opaque, or better yet, have the windows removed entirely.
  • Close the garage door – Don’t get into the habit of leaving your garage door open all the time, because any criminal can drive by and notice that fact. Even if you live in a nice neighborhood, you can have not-so-nice visitors from outside that neighborhood.
  • Secure your garage doors – The door between the garage and your home should be just as secure as the front door to your house, and it should be just as solidly built, so as to discourage access to the interior of your home.
  • Garage door remote – It might be convenient to have the garage door remote in your car, so you can open it easily when you come home, but once you park the car and leave the remote in the car, any burglar has easy access to your house. Instead, invest in a keychain remote garage door opener that you can leave on a keychain, so the remote can’t be picked up by anyone who shouldn’t have it.
  • Emergency release – Make sure that your garage door emergency release is secured, even if you have to use some plain old zip ties for the purpose.

Garage door security devices and recommendations

For all your security product needs, and for additional recommendations on how to make your home more secure against criminal penetration, contact your local residential locksmith, and discuss any issues you may have.

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Rekey vs Lock Replacement: Which is Right for You?

When it’s time to consider replacing your lock, it’s important to know the difference between rekeying and lock replacement. Many homeowners and business owners choose lock replacement over rekeying simply because they didn’t know rekeying a lock was an option.

In most cases, you have the option to rekey or replace your locks. Let’s look at what both are and why you might choose to rekey your locks over replacing them.

What is Lock Rekeying?

While it might seem self-explanatory, lock rekeying is the process of readjusting the internal parts of the lock to fit a different key. The goal is to change the design of the key needed to unlock your doors to ensure the old keys no longer work.

Without a trained residential locksmith, it’s very difficult to rekey a lock. When your locksmith rekeys your locks, you will keep the same locks you have, but they will not open with the old keys. you will need a new key, which the locksmith will also provide, to open the locks.

Lock rekeying offers a cost-effective way to change the key for your locks when you have lost your keys, a tenant moves out, or for any other reason.

Since you will use the current lock body and change the interior parts, it’s often less expensive than replacing your locks. While rekeying your locks is a cost-effective way to boost security, it’s only a limited security boost. If you want to gain even better security, replacing your locks is a better choice.

Why Choose Lock Replacement?

When you decide to replace the locks, you will actually replace the entire lock with a new one. This offers the ability to upgrade your locks to a more secure choice compared to what you currently have for your home or office.

Choosing the right locks means you need to consider the necessary factors. It usually starts with a look at home much you want to spend, along with the features you prefer. Some locks offer better security features and you can even choose smart locks if you want to gain some convenience features.

If you want to upgrade your locks to a very secure option, multi-point lock installation might be right for you. With a trained locksmith, these locks can be installed and will give you a more secure option since they lock in multiple places unlike single-point locks found on most doors.

With the ability to choose the locks you want and upgrade your security; lock replacement might be the right option for your needs. Compared to rekeying, lock replacement offers better security, but it will cost more. You will pay for both parts and labor when having new locks installed at home or at the office.

Whether you choose to rekey or replace your locks, it’s best to hire a trained Chicago locksmith to handle the job. Trying to do it yourself could result in disaster. Without proper installation of new locks, you might cause more harm to your security than good. Hire a professional and make sure your locks are either rekeyed or replaced properly.

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Why It’s Important to Have Your Data Wiring Tested

data wiring

Whether it’s a computer network or a wired security system, getting your data wiring tested is important. Many issues can be traced back to faulty wiring.

Data wiring testing is important if you have a problem with your system, but also during installation. When installing new data wiring, all cables should be thoroughly tested to ensure they work properly.

Testing not only shows bad wiring but can also help to ensure you have the best quality. By testing all data wiring, you won’t have to worry about faulty wires causing issues with your security system, internet system, or any other wired data system. Here are some of the main reasons to test your data wiring regularly.

Top 5 Reasons to Test Data Wiring

1. Vulnerabilities

If you have poor performing wiring, you may have a vulnerable system. Whether it’s the wiring for your intercom system, your CCTV system, or any other type of security system, faulty wiring could lead to issues. Always test the data wiring to ensure you don’t have vulnerabilities.

2. Faulty System

With bad wiring comes a system that simply doesn’t work properly. This could be an access control system not letting someone in that should be granted access or another type of system. Faulty wiring can lead to other issues within the system.

3. Saves Money

Testing data wiring now and finding a small issue will cost less to fix compared to suffering a larger problem later. When you test your wiring, you can spot issues before they become much larger. Your wiring is expensive and the cost to replace equipment impacted by faulty wiring might be much larger than fixing the wiring when tested now.

4. Ensures Proper Installation

Data wire testing during the installation of equipment ensures you get a proper installation. Sometimes, wiring can be faulty from the get-go and cause an issue with the equipment. This could result in a bad installation or thinking there is a bigger issue when it’s just a bad wire.

5. Ensures Maximum Performance

If you’re testing data wiring for your internet or another type of network, good wiring will ensure the best performance. Sometimes, the wiring works, but it isn’t performing as well as it should. Replacing poorly performing wiring can help give you the performance you need and desire.

There are many reasons to have your data wiring tested regularly. It doesn’t matter if the wiring has an impact on your security system, intercom, access control, or another system, it should be tested regularly. With proper testing, you can find out about and fix smaller issues before they become larger issues.

Data wiring testing isn’t difficult and should be performed regularly. How often you test the wiring will depend on the location of the wires and how much they are used. Wiring can go bad or stop performing as designed at any time. It’s best to catch issues before they cause vulnerabilities, equipment failure, or a larger, more expensive issue.

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Top Smart Home Security Features for 2021

smart home security

Home security is very important. Without a good security system with the right features, you might struggle to feel protected and even sleep at night.

Protecting your home and your valuables has never been easier. With so many great smart home security features available, you can gain both convenience and peace of mind. Let’s look at some of the top home security features for 2021 to consider when upgrading your security system.

Smart Video Doorbell

While it’s not a new feature of a security system, smart video doorbells are still one of the top smart home security features. With a smart doorbell, you can see who is at your door, no matter where you are.

According to an article from Reader’s Digest, the most common way a burglar breaks into the home is through the front door. In fact, 34% of home break-ins happen through the front doors. By adding a smart video doorbell, you can monitor the number one place a break-in will occur 24/7/365.

A front door camera can be set up to alert you anytime it senses motion. This could be a delivery person dropping off a package, the kids arriving home from school, or someone that shouldn’t be at your front door. This is a vital element of any good smart home security system in 2021.

Smart Lights

Another good smart home security feature to add to your system is smart lights. It might not seem like a security feature, but having the ability to turn lights on and off from anywhere can signal to a would-be burglar that someone is home, even if you’re not.

It used to be, you would set up a timer when you were on vacation to have the lights turn on and off at certain times. However, burglars are smart enough to seek when lights come on and go off at the same time every single day. With smart lights, you can vary the time they come on and even control which lights come on and off automatically.

This is one of the top smart home security features for those traveling often or not home at night sometimes.

Smart Security Sensors

While motion sensors are nothing new, smart security sensors take the basic motion sensor to another level. With a smart security sensor, when it senses motion, it can communicate with other parts of your smart home security system.

Not only can this type of sensor alert you on your mobile device, but it can also turn on a light or trigger a smart alarm to go off. For example, if you have a smart security sensor in the hallway and it senses motion, you can get a notification on your phone, while the hallway smart lights are triggered to turn on, your alarm starts blaring, and your central monitoring team is alerted to the tripped alarm.

You can even set up smart security sensors without a complete home security system or without an alarm at all. They can be used to trigger just lights and send you a notification if you prefer.

There are many great smart home security features to consider in 2021. With just about any element of a home security system including smart technology today, it’s important to consider which upgrades are best for your needs.

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Reasons a Certified Locksmith Is Worth It

Associated Locksmiths of America Logo

Certified locksmiths get all-encompassing, arduous training at registered organizations that you can research and authenticate easily. Why else should you trust a locksmith service?

There are lots of issues with locks that may cause you to need to replace or repair them at your home or work place. Maybe you or an employee lost a key or maybe you need new locks for a just bought home or business, or you had an employee leave, and they took the key with them, so you need to rekey or replace the locks you already have installed. Whatever the reason for it, this is a job that you should not do yourself or trust to a rookie. While it might seem like an easy task, it is one that is best left to professional locksmiths.

Certifications

Certified professional locksmiths receive broad, demanding training at registered organizations that you can research and verify easily online. This training allows them to repair and work with a variety of lock types and to also provide educated information to customers about security and safety fears. Their certifications provide you with peace of mind in their locksmith and security knowledge. Unfortunately, people with little to no training and scam artists try to pass themselves off as locksmiths all the time. They can cause substantial and expensive damage to your locks and doors if they don’t actually know what they’re doing. Protect yourself and your property by confirming that your locksmith is a certified locksmith.

Bonded and Secured

Certified locksmiths should be bonded and always carry insurance. While they are trained to handle the locks with care and to know what they’re doing, accidents do sometimes happen. In such a case, knowing they have insurance that will cover any damage is good peace of mind – something you definitely won’t get if you do it yourself or use an amateur. Also, sometimes the job may take longer than you can wait for it to be done. Certified locksmiths who are bonded can be left to do their work without worry on your part that anything shady might happen.

Advanced Equipment

Certified locksmiths have the appropriate tools and equipment for the job, whatever that job may be. They also keep up-to-date on the latest practices and tools of their trade. Unprofessional locksmiths frequently do not, and this can lead to them using the wrong tool and causing pointless damage to your locks or doors.

Reliable Experience

Lastly, trustworthy and reliable companies only hire certified locksmiths, so you know you are getting the appropriate kind of service. They typically have years of training and skill in the field, so you can trust that they know what they’re doing, and they keep their knowledge up-to-date. Technology is continuously changing so don’t trust the safety and security of your home or business to someone who may not know what they’re doing. Quick Key Locksmith & Security is the Simple Solution to Your Safety!

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What Does a Home Security System Cost?

security system equipmnet

What Does a Home Security System Cost?

Are you thinking about having a security system installed in your residence? Maybe it’s to give you peace of mind as well as to help protect your family and your possessions? If so, you may be wondering how much a home security system would cost.

The shortest answer is: the price differs depending on the company, the monitoring service package, and the equipment that comes with it. For instance, with some monitoring, you can select from several monitoring services with additional add-on equipment.

For answers to some basic home security questions, continue on:

Why Should I Purchase a Home Security System?

The cost of a home security system is fairly small when you consider the possible costs of property loss or damage from a break-in. A home security system not only offers peace of mind and a sense of safety but also helps to frighten off would-be invaders. Another study directed by leading University reports monitored alarm systems make a home three times less expected to be robbed than a house without an alarm system.

What are the differences between a professionally monitored and a not monitored security system? 

While researching online you might have learned that you can select from a professionally monitored or unmonitored home security system. Professionally monitored security systems are inclined to be much more expensive than an unmonitored security system, but many homeowners appreciate knowing someone is monitoring their home 24/7. Monitored systems are typically connected to a phone LAN line, so when a sensor is activated, the monitoring company is notified and contacts the appropriate authorities.

Un-monitored systems often have the same sensors contained within monitored systems; however, when the inside alarm sounds, no reports will be sent out to the authorities. Instead, the alarm just warns homeowners and neighbors of a problem, but if you’re not at home, you must depend on your neighbors to contact emergency or police services.

How Much Does a Home Security System Cost? 

By now you are probably unsure how to define your average monthly cost for home security. The best way to find this out is to talk to a home security expert to determine which monitoring package and equipment is best for you and your home or office.

Quick Key security specialists will gladly give you a free quote. To customize your plan, they may ask you a few of the below questions to determine which monitoring package is best for you:

  1. How big is your home or office?
  2. How many entryways need to be watched?
  3. Do you want to control your system by remote?
  4. Do you have a landline phone in your home?
  5. Do you want to include video surveillance?

For answers to all your home security questions, check out our services at quick-key.net  or give us a call at 1-855-220-6124.

 

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5 Things Burglars Look For In a Home Before They Break In

Burglary Breakin

Thieves don’t usually choose their houses randomly. The threat of being caught is simply too great to go into a home with a tough alarm system and guard dog. Burglars look for weak properties. Defending your home from thieves means getting into the mind of an intruder, so you know what to elude. Here are five things that a burglar will look for in an easier target:

#1 Easy Entry

Struggling with tough locks and dodging motion sensor alarms is much more work than walking through an unlocked back door. Install a DIY security system. Making your house look harder to get into could direct a thief elsewhere.

#2 A Hidden Entry Point

A window opportunely masked by trees and shrubs gives a criminal time to get inside without possibly being seen by neighbors. Cut back the shrubs and tree branches near your property year-round. Motion triggered floodlights also make it harder for them.

#4 Signs of an Empty Home

One of the best home security advice is to make it look like people are in the house as often as possible. If you go away on vacation, have a neighbor get your newspaper and have the post office hold all of your mail. Unkempt grass and a dark house at night are other ways you can unintentionally show a burglar that the home is empty and easy pick ins.

#5 Window Air Conditioners

Window air conditioners on lower level floors also leave an inadvertent opening for an intruder. If you have to use an AC on a ground floor window, strengthen your home with motion-activated audible alarms and other preventative measures.

The moral is that if you make a burglar question whether they’ll be caught, you highly increase the likelihood they will not choose your home. Check out our outdoor security cameras for sale and motion-activated lights to get started. If you still have questions, call Quick Key and we’ll be glad to help you.

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Ways to Burglar-Proof Your Home Affordably

Night Time Burglary

Everyone would probably agree that burglar-proofing your home is a great idea because it can protect family members, all of the valuables inside, and even the home itself against damage or theft. But while everyone agrees it’s a great idea, not everyone can afford to implement some of the measures which provide the best protection against unwanted entry, for instance, an expensive home security system. The ideas discussed below are some which are affordable for almost every budget, and some combination of these safeguards can provide a collectively strong deterrent to home burglaries.

Put in an alarm system

While alarms certainly won’t prevent a determined criminal from getting in, they will certainly alert you to the fact that someone was trying to. It’s also a rare thief who will trigger a home alarm system and still remain cool enough to carry out an intended burglary – the sound alone is usually enough to send a would-be criminal scurrying off to safety.

Deadbolt the doors

More than a third of all burglaries are executed after the perpetrator gained entry through the front door, and nearly a quarter of all thefts are committed after entry through the back door. This should make it clear that your doors receive special attention from the criminal-minded, usually because they provide the easiest access. Installing a deadbolt on your front and back doors can be a very cost-effective measure to deter criminal entry, and only a highly skilled burglar is capable of circumventing the security provided by doors that have deadbolt locks installed.

Close the curtains

Being neighborly and having curtains drawn back all the time can be problematic, in that it can provide any burglar a solid glimpse into the interior of your home. That can help with the decision on whether or not there are valuables inside worth stealing. By keeping curtains closed, especially when no one is home, you’ll be depriving criminals of needed information.

Trim the shrubs

Don’t let shrubbery become overgrown and provide an effective hiding spot for burglars because they can use this to ‘case the joint’, and to provide a base for their criminal operations. Trees can provide this same kind of protection, as can large flower beds or particularly overgrown varieties of flowers and grasses.