Toorcamp: The Lock Picking Village

Flower Lock

The Open Organization Of Lockpickers (TOOOL) ran the lock picking village at Toorcamp. They gave great workshops on how lock picking works, provided a lot of examples of security flaws in popular locks, and let everyone practice with their locks and tools. Lock picking is a bit addictive, and I spent quite a bit of time at the village. TOOOL is an international organization that aims to … [Read more...]

Picking handcuffs with laser cut keys

keys

At this year's HOPE conference, German competitive lockpicker and security researcher [Ray] gave a talk about escaping high security handcuffs that are probably being used by your local police and other LEOs. He's doing this with 3D printed and laser cut keys because, you know, security through obscurity never works. Two years ago, [Ray] gave a talk at HOPE on 3D printing Dutch handcuff … [Read more...]

Hackaday Links: July 1, 2012

Kerbal

Opening really old lock boxes [Barry Wels] is a locksmith. One day, he got a call from a museum that had a few 17th century strong boxes that needed to be opened. After a little probing with an endoscope, he decided they could be picked with a little bit of spring steel. So, what's in the box? [Barry] is going to send in an update in a month or two. An awesome Geordi La Forge VISOR. But … [Read more...]

Hackaday Links: February 12, 2012

van go

This is why digital picture frames were invented [Petros] sent in this video of his visualization of Van Gogh's Starry Night. He did this with openFrameworks and also made a version that reacts to sound. Is anyone else reminded of that one scene in Vincent and the Doctor? A boat's a boat, but a mystery box can be anything [Rick] wanted to build a lock pick training station for the … [Read more...]

Hackerspace competition combines drinking and lock picking – need we say more?

rumble_challenge_lockpicking_contest

The guys from Bloomington’s Fraternal Order of Lock Sport (FOOLS) sure know how to throw a party! At this year’s DerbyCon event down in Louisville, the group put on an awesome event that combined lockpicking and drinking - what could be better? The Rumble Challenge is lock picking game where six people compete head to head for the best time. Whenever a competitor masters his lock, the … [Read more...]

Thinkpad Dock-Picking

dock-pick

Hackers at the "RaumZeitLabor" hackerspace in Mannheim Germany have noticed that the locking mechanism on the thinkpad mini dock is extremely easy to circumvent. Sold as an additional layer of security, the mechanism itself is not really secured in any way. The button that actuates it is locked by a key, but the latch isn't secured and can be accessed via a vent on the side. They are using a … [Read more...]

Marc Weber Tobias vs Medeco

tobias

This month's Wired magazine has an extensive profile of [Marc Weber Tobias]. He's a professional lock picker that delights in coming up with new techniques for taking on high security locks. In recent years, he's run afoul of the US's premier high security lock manufacturer, Medeco, by publishing Open in Thirty Seconds with [Tobias Bluzmanis]. Medeco still denies that this is even possible. Wired … [Read more...]