The idea is to secure the outside perimeter of your home against forced entry . All exterior doors must be of solid construction, equipped with deadbolts of adequate quality, properly installed with solid steel strikes of 10 inches in length . Each of the hinges should also be attached with at least one 3 inch screw - again, through the facing into the wall stud. On the newer homes, here in the Ottawa area, staying with locks on a Weiser keyway will also ensure that all locks can usually be keyed alike when changing locks.
New homes built today usually have a long glass panel beside the lock side of the door.
As I said before, it is mandatory that this strike area is further reinforced on the inside with at least a foot long piece of one inch wide by three sixteenth thick steel secured with at least six three inch long screws going into the frame perpendicular to the door itself. Failure to do this will almost guarantee that one or two good kicks will break these doors inward allowing quick entry into the home. Don't feel you have to spend additional money on high security locks such as Medeco, Abloy, Abus etc. For those worried about fire exit, there are two options. First is to install a second double cylinder lock above the first, on the same key combination.