
Locksmiths Pissed Off At Geeks For Letting Out The Secret: Lockpicking Is Easy - nickb
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080711.wlpicking11/EmailBNStory/lifeMain/
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rudyfink
I am always amazed how much it feels like we are in a world of guilds who are
concerned their "secrets" will escape.

~~~
coglethorpe
Anyone who relies on restricting information to stay in business is in trouble
these days.

I'm pretty sure (and there's a quote in the article about this) that thieves
pretty much ignore locks and just smash and grab. Locks keep honest people
honest.

~~~
auston

      "Anyone who relies on restricting information to stay in business is in trouble these days."
    

That would be the "SEO" industry ( _not the entire industry.. just 90%_ ).

~~~
ovi256
Add (management, strategy) consultants to that.

~~~
tjr
And illusionists.

~~~
william42
Actually, a lot of them(Derren Brown, Penn & Teller, James Randi) do reveal a
lot of their tricks.

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hugh
Surely locksmiths should be happy if ordinary key locks become insecure --
they're the ones who are going to be called out to replace them with higher-
tech locks.

It's the rest of us who should be pissed off, we're the ones who'll have to
pay them money to replace our locks.

~~~
mrtron
A lot of the high tech locks have key backups - so it makes me wonder if they
can easily just be bumped too.

I want to get one of those fingerprint ones soon - because I am horrible with
keeping track of keys.

~~~
henning
unfortunately fingerprint recognition is notorious for bad security. there are
exploits for various systems out there that involve sophisticated techniques
such as gummy worms and replay attacks carried out by gently breathing on the
fingerprint reader.

~~~
hugh
Personally I'd be happy to unlock my house the same way I unlock my car -- by
pressing a button on a device in my pocket. Better still, it would be the same
device. Better still, I wouldn't have to press the button at all, it would
unlock as soon as it noticed I was approaching, and then re-lock itself as
soon as I was inside. That's probably the best solution in the longer term.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
Business Idea: the same thing, but with a chastity belt. eh? million dollars,
easy. >_>

~~~
Giorgi
Yeah, and as a web-service

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pavelludiq
I have a home made kit made out of big paper clips. Its not that good, and im
a bad picker, but i find it interesting. Its a nice hobby. I feel safe because
my dad installed a good lock that uses an electromagnet to unlock our metal
door. Eastern Europe in the 90's(and now too) required such measures.

~~~
aardvarkious
I've never heard of that. Does it use the magnet to hold the door locked, or
to unlock it? If the latter, what happens when power goes down or the battery
runs out and you want to get in or out? If the former, what stops people from
disrupting the power supply to bypass the lock?

~~~
pavelludiq
The magnet opens the door. Its basicly home made, and its security through
obscurity. Only some nabors and friends know about it, and about 4-5 people
know how to unlock it(it doesn't use a key, it has a metal detector and a fake
door bell, you put a bolt on the metal detector, which is hidden, and pres the
fake door bell, and it opens, then open the door). You don't know it's there
if you look at the outside of the door, you just see a standard lock. Its
actually not that secure, anybody that knows how it workers can open it, we
only use it if we are outh of town for more than a day, most of the time there
is at least one person home. If the power goes down, you have to wait for it
to come back. You can get in from a window if that happens and unlock it from
the inside. It's not a problem from the inside, you just pull the lock. Ooops,
i said too much :D

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nickb
Banana?? I admit, I was curious...
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbOajWDg_Ts>

~~~
froo
I was a little curious too - I was expecting something more like macguyver
where he used only a banana.... a little disappointing, but does have merit I
guess.

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a-priori
How do you become a locksmith anyways? It seems to me they'd start as amateurs
like these.

~~~
eru
Perhaps today. Earlier it was: Belong to the right family - a family that did
log picking for ages.

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beaudeal
i suppose its good that this is staying within geek culture as opposed to
spreading amongst high school students or something -- imagine if they all saw
that youtube video on how to pick a masterlock with a soda can??

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Giorgi
So what exactly lockpicking has to do with Geeks?

~~~
baha_man
'Driven mainly by computer geeks who see parallels between hacking networks
and picking locks, the hobby has exploded online.'

