Are Garage Door Openers a Security Risk?

If you have an electronic garage door opener, chances are that a thief can gain access to your home quite easily.

Picture this? It's 7 am and you have just pulled out of your garage, on your way to work. Like any other day, you point your garage door remote towards the house, close the garage door and drive away. Meanwhile, a thief is parked nearby, watching you leave. He simply drives up to your home, points a code-grabber at your garage door, and opens it. Yes, it is that simple! Now, while you are entering the freeway, he is driving into your garage and entering your home. Not the type of scenario any of us wish for, right? Well, if you have an electronic garage door opener, your home and family could be at risk.

Every hour of the day, law enforcement officials report on break-ins like this that could have easily been avoided, but thieves continue to use code-grabbers to gain unrestricted access to people's possessions and family. Since these devices can be activated from hundreds of feet away, it is impossible to know when your home will be the target. Even worse, if you are not aware that the burglary was accomplished through the use of a code-grabber, the same thief could return and steal more from you a few months later. Basically, he has established an open, unsecured portal to your property.

Thieves get these 'code-grabbers' from web sites, or they order them from ads found in the back of magazines. Code-grabbers can even be created from basic parts that can be purchased at any electronics store. While police departments around the country are aware of this, they hesitate to give these devices any more publicity, for fear of inspiring more potential criminals.

A code-grabber can intercept and record the unique signal produced by your garage door remote, which can then be duplicated and retransmitted to open your garage door. The only way to protect yourself from becoming a victim of this type of crime is by equipping your garage-door opener with a code encrypting device. By generating millions of randomly rotating opening codes, a code encryptor will stop thieves in their tracks, allowing you to keep your home secure.

Most new garage door openers are already equipped with a code encryptor, but if you recently purchased a garage door opener you will want to check your owner's manual to be sure. If you find that your garage door is not protected with a code encryptor, there is a way to change that.

Companies like Liftmaster and Genie now offer conversion kits that will work on all models of garage door openers, making it impossible to duplicate the frequency. The Genie Intellicode Universal Conversion Kit is compatible with any garage door opener brand that you may already own, and it will provide your opener with the same level of protection against code grabbing and scanning as a brand new Genie Intellicode opener, stopping any code-grabbing thief cold!


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For more information about garage doors and garage door openers, go to http://www.mesagaragedoors.com