Key Control and IC Cores

A commercial leverset with its ic core installed.

A commercial leverset with its ic core not installed.

One thing I love educating customers on, especially businesses, is the importance of key control. Key control means ensuring that you know how many keys you have and where they are. Whether moving into a new business or home, changing the locks to a new key is an important step. Taking on a new location whether personally or commercially means anyone involved with that location in the past may have a key to it and you don't know how many keys are in existence.

Quite a few years ago I had a shop with a partner in New Bedford. Our location was a cool little shopfront with big windows in a nice spot that had shops lining the street and a bunch of apartments above. We had keys to a bathroom on the first floor of the building that was near the elevators to the apartments upstairs. One of the first things I did was change my locks on the shop as I'm a fan of higher security and key control. I went with a couple medeco cylinders and gave keys off to the management company.

I was friends with the other shop owners and at one point one of them approached me and asked if my bathroom key operated the front door of his business. It did. In fact it operated the bathroom, his front door, every other shopfront door in the building (except mine!) and all the apartments upstairs. To read between the lines the keys this property management company had handed out weren't bathroom keys, they were master keys to the whole property. At some point they had misplaced or lost the bathroom key. This meant that myself, every shop owner, and every employee who had a key to a shop all had keys not only to the buildings front door but to every single apartment. I approached that company with this information and they seemed unfazed. This is a personal example of something I dealt with that points out the importance of key control. Having a system in place that identifies how many keys are in existence and prevents copying and disseminating Master Keys on properties that have them is important, but often overlooked for convenience.

An IC core is a figure eight shaped cylinder that can be removed by a client from a lock, with what is called a core key, and replaced with another core so it makes an instant rekey possible. They are fantastic when you have an exployee leave under questionable circumstances so you don't have to wait for a locksmith to show up and prevent them from accessing their former place of work. Often clients keep a spare set of cores and keys locked away in a safe place to instantly change locks in an emergency. High security versions make bypassing more difficult and restricted versions make it close to impossible to make copies. The blanks aren't sold to the public or other locksmiths if they are restricted. This allows key control. You can have a certain number of keys, keep them marked so you know which is assigned to who and prevent duplicates from being made unless the appropriate people sign for it. It's a little less convenient but a lot more secure. Having limited keys that are marked also keeps key holders honest as any key encountered has a number on it showing who it belongs to and no "ghost keys" can be made.

JD Locksmith Solutions can help any home or business explore what their physical security needs are and what options are right for you. With over tens years experience we can help make any location in Plymouth, Barnstable, Bristol and Norfolk counties secure and we are available 24/7 for emergency service when needed at (508)535-LOCK or (508)535-5625.