Originally Posted by CingularDuality

How many houses do you think get broken into by having the lock on the front door picked? Next to none.

Home security needs to consist of a much more well rounded philosophy. Locks are only there to keep people from being tempted to just walk right in.

Pretty much the point I was going to make. As I've heard it said, locks are only good for honest people.

I'm in charge of hardware for my university department, and we have a cabinet where we recently started to store some valuable equipment. Now, the cabinet has a lock, but it's nothing ultra-secure. Last week, unbeknownst to me, other people in the department called out the locksmiths to put a better lock on it. When I asked why they're spending money on this, several people got all worried because "a thief could just pry the door open with this lock, but with the new lock they won't be able to get in without damaging the doors." I laughed and told them that, were I a thief, if I wanted to get inside the cabinet (which has rather thin wooden doors) I'd just bring a hatchet and bash the crap out of it. It was kinda funny because people seemed to think that thieves wouldn't attempt to steal anything if they had to cause damage. This was also in the wake of someone stealing a multi-thousand dollar piece of gear that was locked and tied down with security cables; the thief just cut the cables and took them with him.

Any lock can be picked/hacked, and any determined thief will likely just smash a window if they really want to get in. Locks are really only good to prevent crimes of opportunity and to have a valid claim for insurance purposes. :P