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11-year-old Proves Locks Not So Secure
An anonymous reader writes "A new security column at Engadget details the new 'old' threat of bumping locks. The article goes on to describe and demonstrate an 11-year-old girl bypassing a standard 5-pin lock at a recent DefCon Hacker Convention. The girl had no prior experience and didn't even understand the theory she was applying. Scary!"
The thing that is most scary about this attack is that it leaves no trace of the crime, unlike a broken window. This means that some unfortunate people won't be able to convince their insurance company to pay up because there is no evidence of forced entry. The insurance company will try to claim that you forgot to lock your door and refuse to pay up.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
Mod Parent Up.
I just bought a house a few months ago, and as one does when one buys a house, the first thing I did was to change all the locks, and throw some padlocks on the gates to the back yard. Then I had a security monitoring system installed (Brinks, recommended for their professionalism), and finally, the wife and I bought a small fireproof safe to store some documents and valuables in.
This whole process sparked off a discussion about security with a coworker who lives in a house valued at approximately four times my own, his house also being located in a gated community. The gist of the discussion was that there's no way to make your house totally secure, all you can do is add enough deterrants to make it less desirable for the common theif to break into your home. If someone really wanted to get into my place, they could, and if they knew exactly where to go and what to grab, they could really screw me and probably get away before the police were notified and showed up.
However, each layer of security, the locks, the security system, and the safe, adds a deterrant. There's the time that has to be invested getting in, the fear of someone hearing the alarm going off and the ticking clock of the authorities being notified and dispatched, not to mention the hassle of locating and gaining access to the inside of the safe. Only someone who invested some serious research time and effort could gain access to my valuables and get away with it. And for what? My passport, some petty cash, and copies of my legal documents?
The level of security has to match the value of what the security is trying to protect, and the common door lock is probably plenty of security for 90% of the people who have one. Only the truly paranoid, or those with something really valuable (or irreplacable), need more, and even in that case, not that much more.
In the end, my wife and I joke every time we set our alarm and lock our door that we hope no one steals our Fabrige Egg or Hope Diamond.