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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!"
Dont forget you can do the same with bike locks and a pen. It seems people find more obvious ways to break things every day.
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The concept of security is as much about perception as effectiveness.
This article's enlightening example just drives deeper a little concept I recently heard called security theater,
Human psychology is certainly interesting - because on one hand we have people scared of box cutters, but on the other hand we drive 70mph mere feet away from each other every day.
Maybe it could be argued that security is primarily about perception.
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Bumping seems like it could escalate if left unchecked any longer. Most locks will open to it and the only way to protect against it is to get rid of your old locks and replace them with a new one that is bump proof. When I first saw bumping (about a month ago) I wanted to try it. I picked up a 7pin lock and a triangular file. I filed the spare key into the sape of a bump key ( I pretty much eyeballed it ) and on the second wack of a screw driver handle the lock opened. Yet again the internet changes a mild nuisance into a campagn of fear.
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The average person locks their front door and goes to bed feeling secure.
They also probably have several windows, glass patio doors, and the like at easy-access level around their home. Most don't have bars on them.
Even those that do have bars probably live in framed out housing, where going through a wall is a trivial feat for a determened intruder with a simple sledgehammer.
But the reality is that locks are deamed necessary because they keep out the casual intruder. The person who will enter only if there is not the most minimal level of effort required to do so.
Beyond that, they are not a security device. They serve that one, minimal function well, but that's all they do.
For instances where a lock is actually protecting something of value, it is usually only one aspect of a much more sophisticated security system. In those instances, the lock serves as an authentication device "this person has a key, therefore they are authorized," and could just as easily be replaced by any other type of authentication system. As again, it can't provide protection on it's own.
That's something that any good locksmith will tell you -- if they can install it, they can bypass it. And so can any other person with access to the right tools and knowledge.
Um, which is [one reason] why we have to worry more. More people know about it.
Oh please. Has anybody ever put complete blind faith in the fact that they have locks on their doors as a guarantee that robbers can never get in to their house?
There is a lot of fear-mongering going on right now about this technique (and this is the second article posted on Slashdot about it in the past couple weeks). But all of this misses the fundamental point: locks have never been enough to keep thieves out.
What is generally enough to keep thieves out is a) basic human morality, and b) the law. Otherwise we'd all be getting robbed every single night - after all, most of us live within earshot of hundreds of other human beings.
Now, if this technique has suddenly caused you to lose faith in both of those things, then I don't know what to tell you - most people don't rest their entire faith in humanity on the sanctity of a door lock. And if you didn't have faith in those things before, then why did you think a lock was going to protect you in the first place? I would think a loaded shotgun under your pillow would be more your style.
The bottom line is this. If you've been robbed before, your locks didn't do you a hell of a lot of good even before this. And if you haven't been robbed before, there's no more chance that you will now. Because the reason you haven't been robbed isn't because thieves didn't think they could get past your door lock - there are a myriad of ways to get into a house for someone that wants to. The reason you haven't been robbed is because the law forbids it and basic human decency says people shouldn't do it.
Yes, there are thieves out there, and I'm not saying you shouldn't bother to have locks - if for no other reason than to keep snooping mailmen or nosy neighbors out. But knowing how to bump and actually breaking into a house are two totally different things. And unlike "script kiddies", breaking and entering is a crime that's taken very seriously - it is usually a felony - and the physical evidence is usually easy enough to trace, especially for an inexperienced thief.
However, each layer of security, the locks, the security system, and the safe, adds a deterrant.
I have a friend whose parents' house has every security system I can think of. Big spiky locked gates, CCTV, the works. They get burgled more frequently than any other house on their street: it looks a lot like they have things worth protecting, and things worth protecting are worth stealing. Security != deterrant always.