Slashdot Mirror
The Study of Physical Hacks at DefCon
eldavojohn writes "DefCon usually focuses on electronic security, but Saturday a talk was held that focused on possibly the oldest form of hacking — lockpicking. As software security becomes better and better, the focus may be shifting towards simple hacking tips like looking over someone's shoulder for their password, faking employment or just picking the locks to gain access to the building where machines are left on overnight. From the article: 'Medeco deadbolt locks relied on worldwide at embassies, banks and other tempting targets for thieves, spies or terrorists can be opened in seconds with a strip of metal and a thin screw driver, Marc Tobias of Security.org demonstrated for AFP ... Tobias says he refuses to publish details of 'defeating' the locks because they are used in places ranging from homes, banks and jewelers to the White House and the Pentagon. He asked AFP not to disclose how it is done.' I'm sure all Slashdot readers are savvy enough to use firewall(s) but do you know and trust what locks 'physically' protect your data from hacks like these?"
"...simple hacking tips like looking over someone's shoulder for their password."
How far the meaning of this word has come from it's original usage.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
Google is your friend. All of about 30 seconds of searching came up with this article as well as others. Although I didn't watch them I also found a few videos posted on YouTube that claim to demonstrate how to do it.
No, it was meant to be serious. Locks keep out honest people and lazy criminals (given how often the police issue updates reminding us to lock the doors because they've had a run of unforced entry burglaries, there must be a lot of them).
Weapons keep out ANYBODY, but watch out for criminal-friendly laws on deadly force that either require you to flee your own home or prove that you were threatened with imminent risk of death or great bodily harm.
Fortunately where I live, deadly force is justified within your own home top stop the commission of a felony, and burglary is a felony.
The cuts in the key are individually angled so they rotate the tumblers as well as lifting them. Slots in the tumblers are lined up by the rotation to unlock a sidebar that fits into a longitudinal slot in the cylinder.
Bump keys can't even get started opening that.
More burglars have feet than have lockpicking skills. Step one in physical security is to combat kick-in attacks. Replace your strike plate, which I can almost guarantee is inadequate, with a reinforced model like the Mag-3 and most important, install it with #10 wood screws at least 3" long, so it can't tear out of the studs when subjected to a good kick. Predrill the holes and put soap on the threads so you don't break screws as you install it.
A block watch is a great idea too. Neighbors are a security mechanism.
An alarm system also protects you against fire, which depending on where you live can be a bigger threat than burglary.
I take it you have not seen the "Protected by Smith & Wesson" Signs.
v let/CustomContentDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&c atalogId=11101&content=36818
http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser
http://www.preparedness.com/protbysmitwe.html
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.
The summary must be butchering Marc Tobiases recent claim of the obvious: The slider mechanism in the Medeco M3 is a patent extension feature and provides virtually no additional security.
Gasp! You don't say?
Almost all lock manufacturers add these useless features every time their patent expires. The M3 one being particularly worthless, but others that come to mind are the Bilock trigger, the Schlage Everest Slider, and the Mul-T-Lock interactive element. I believe it's EVVA that added a similar mechanism to their locks, but one that is almost worthy of being called an upgrade.
They all accomplish the same thing: A "specially" made portion of the key, moves(or allows to move) a spring loaded obstruction until it now longer obstructs the shear line. Most of these obstructions can be cleared out of the way with a lockpick or aren't even an issue if the lock is being picked.
If Marc Tobias ACTUALLY accomplished as the article suggested, then he would have to provide extraordinary proof to match his extraordinary claim. I am intimately familiar with Medeco, and a strip of metal and a paperclip isn't going to open these locks mounted on a door short of a comb attack which I doubt would work, or through an extraordinary amount of skill. Medeco are a BITCH to pick.
I think it is medeco http://www.medeco.com/ not "medico". Medico locks are for locking up your girlfriend so nobody can access her private parts.
These locks are harder, but not impossible to bump for a very skilled locksmith. Nothing is 100% hack-proof, just harder to hack.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
The Dell key-logger hoax has probably the best decoy story to move
_ html/jbug-Usenix06.html
professional hackers/security staffers into the wrong direction, as in
May 2006, USENIX published the following research article :
"Keyboards and Covert Channels"
by Gaurav Shah, Andres Molina and Matt Blaze , 2006-05-17
Department of Computer and Information Science
University of Pennsylvania
http://www.usenix.org/events/sec06/tech/shah/shah
In it the authors demonstrate that todays unwarranted wire tapping NSA
activities, normally don't result in much success as serious internet
users routinely apply encryption into their communications, like IPSec
tunneling, ssh, VPN access connections, secure web-traffic https when
i.e. doing Internet banking activities.
However, secret service found a clever approach to all this, by
covertly installing a Keyboard JitterBug into your keyboard. Here's
how to secure your most trusted keyboard :
Keyboard JitterBug eavesdropping
http://crashrecovery.org/internet/#jitter
where i may add, that lock picking _ALSO_ has been the best hoax ever
on public display. Why? How many people today design their _OWN_
locksmith locks? All installed door-locks worldwide are somehow sold in
stores, hence its products and replacement keys are in the archives of
the local secret service.
Robert
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
you can't bump medeco's. the pins are all placed on angles (like 15 degrees or something). that's was the whole point of medeco's to start with, they're impossible to bump, and a headache to pick traditionally.
Here in the uk it seems (although i cannot be arsed to look for stats) that shootings are steadily increasing in frequency, too.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
This statistic is tossed around quite a bit, but I'll bet you can't cite a source. There was one study that found this (I believe it was 21x more likely), but it has been pretty thoroughly debunked. There's no need to let reality prevent your anti-gun agenda, though. Carry on!
And how large of a blade exactly do you think it takes to kill a person?
It doesn't need to be three inches, I'll tell you that much. Espically if the person is unarmed...or asleep in their bed.
The "pressboard stuff" you're referring to is called OSB (Oriented Strand Board). Yeah it does look cheap, like scraps glued together, but actually it's stronger than either plywood or a wooden plank of the same thickness. (Both plywood and OSB are what they call engineered woods)
Anyways there's no way in hell you're going to punch a hole that you can walk through on an OSB exterior wall with a razor, in any reasonable amount of time. (it will take you hours)
Yes you can saw through it with a power tool, but that applies to any wooden house of any vintage, not just "modern stick frame" ones.
Not entirely the same, but still interesting: http://www.amstat.org/PUBLICATIONS/chance/103.myth 0.pdf. It's 10 years old though. Still, there are some relevant numbers in the article. Atlanta Police Department reports show that, in 198 cases of burglary, offenders obtained the victim's gun in 6 cases. Victims were able to use their gun in self-defense in only 3 cases.
When the policeman of the tie, rule you violate, hello punishment of the kitty?
Probably so but at least your military uses (some) Abloy locks...
The kind of person that puts one of those signs in the front yard has no problem with said criminals coming to take it. He kind of yearns for it.
If someone's going to be an asshole, I'd rather they try it against someone who is overwhelmingly better-armed than they are.
-knewter
It seems that Abloy now owns Medeco. Of course this doesn't change the design of Medeco locks.