Losing keys has two problems. The first is that you can’t open the lock, the second is that there’s a chance that now someone else can open the lock, if they find your keys and are nefarious. It reminds me of Type 1 and Type 2 errors. Having more keys reduces the risk of “An authorised person is not able to open the lock” by increasing the risk of “An unauthorised person is able to open the lock”.
They need two informational keys to open any lock. The first is the physical key. The second is the knowledge of which of the billions of locks in the world is opened by this key, and how to find it.
I think if I lose an unmarked physical key, I’m still okay.
Lost keys are likely to be found in places you frequent. Sometimes this won’t provide much information about where the matching lock is; sometimes it’ll provide a great deal. There’s a big difference between losing your house keys in a coffee shop twenty miles away and losing them in your driveway.
Generally I think I’d be more concerned about car keys than house keys; not only will you typically not stray far from your vehicle when using it, but testing for a match looks a lot less suspicious and many keys come with features intended to make it easier to find the matching lock.
Losing keys has two problems. The first is that you can’t open the lock, the second is that there’s a chance that now someone else can open the lock, if they find your keys and are nefarious. It reminds me of Type 1 and Type 2 errors. Having more keys reduces the risk of “An authorised person is not able to open the lock” by increasing the risk of “An unauthorised person is able to open the lock”.
Consider this trade-off carefully.
They need two informational keys to open any lock. The first is the physical key. The second is the knowledge of which of the billions of locks in the world is opened by this key, and how to find it.
I think if I lose an unmarked physical key, I’m still okay.
Lost keys are likely to be found in places you frequent. Sometimes this won’t provide much information about where the matching lock is; sometimes it’ll provide a great deal. There’s a big difference between losing your house keys in a coffee shop twenty miles away and losing them in your driveway.
Generally I think I’d be more concerned about car keys than house keys; not only will you typically not stray far from your vehicle when using it, but testing for a match looks a lot less suspicious and many keys come with features intended to make it easier to find the matching lock.