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Getting Started with Lockpicking

blog.yaelwrites.com

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#31
post #28

for those people in the UK, snapping the lock is suposedly the most common way of burglars getting through doors. This involves (as the name implies) just twisting the lock if it sticks out or using a blow tourch to melt the handle or just snapping the handle off, to a get purchase on the lock see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqHryHXSj8 btw LockpickingLawer did a review of imho of one of the better locks to prote…

When I was a kid, people would bring a hammer a screwdriver or wrench to a set of lockers. One guy moves down the line sticking the metal bar through the lock and smashing it with the hammer to pop the lock open, the rest of the guys clean out the lockers, then everyone runs (they would abandon the tools which were probably also stolen). Not sure what they would actually get away with but things like Sony Walkmans an…

reminds me of when I/we lost all the keys to the panel locks on a server frame.

My collegue was asking how do we get new keys, I then showed him the easy way and put a large long flat screwdriver in to the lock, another screwdriver through the hole in the handle and turned it effortlessly. twisting the whole lock and opening it

he learnt that there was no real security there

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#32
Speaking as a guy who used to break into stuff for fun and exploration, lockpicking is a primary skill and the #1 best way to get through doors. Used it a hundred times. Only busted a door once, but that was a special situation.

Tension wrench and triangle rake. Works 80% of the time. And if that fails there's usually more doors to try.

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#33
post #17

I wanted to pick that as a hobby after binging on LPL. Unfortunately, even owning lockpicking tools in my country is a crime according to the law :(

Which country is that? Japan? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_picking

Poland

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#34
post #2

It's entertaining watching the Lock Picking Lawyer's videos. He's very good. And far too many locks are embarrassingly bad. Lockpicking ought to be exponentially hard. You should have to try all the pin position combinations. Something like 5^6 for a 6-pin cylinder. But is in practice, it's not much worse than linear. You can tell when you're making forward progress. That's considered a total fail in a cryptographic…

I have no proof but I suspect the LPL to practice the lock before recording the video so it looks like effortless.

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#35
post #29

Somehow my 11 year old got interested in lockpicking (maybe happened upon LPL?). So I got him a kit consisting of a clear-bodied lock and picking tools. He had mastered it within a couple of hours. Then he taught me. And since them we've picked every pad lock and door lock in our house. The biggest and meanest looking ones turned out to be all bluff and the easiest to pick. I hadn't thought that it might be illegal w…

Illegal to pick your own locks? Huh?

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#36
post #29

Somehow my 11 year old got interested in lockpicking (maybe happened upon LPL?). So I got him a kit consisting of a clear-bodied lock and picking tools. He had mastered it within a couple of hours. Then he taught me. And since them we've picked every pad lock and door lock in our house. The biggest and meanest looking ones turned out to be all bluff and the easiest to pick. I hadn't thought that it might be illegal w…

Illegal to pick your own locks? Huh?

The article links a handy explanation of the legal issues.

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the majority of applications, locks are for "keeping honest people honest". With the right tools most locks take seconds to circumvent, think breaking a window, cutting the steel, drilling out the lock. For situations where it actually matters, professionals know to secure elsewhere before the actual lock is considered.

I mean, ideally you have a breaking break-in so that you have evidence for the insurance that you have, in fact, been broken into. Best to have a lock that is easier to break than to pick IMO. But yeah, the base premise is that it should avoid crimes of opportunity. Like the steel cables to lock laptops and screens to tables; they won't stand up for a pair of sturdy snips, but they can't be snatched up quickly.

For people willing to commit insurance fraud putting a few scratches on the lock and door to make it look legit isn't really that much of an effort. Are insurance companies actually conditioning their conclusion based on this kind of evidence?

The real value of a lock that's hard to pick is that it forces the burglar to carry more tools and use noisier, time consuming methods. All of this makes the break-in far more obvious and detectable much faster by neighbors, or anyone really, even the owner.

And you want to make the job harder and riskier for the burglar so the bar is higher for how willing they must be to go through with the job.

Most burglaries are "blind" ones, meaning the burglars have a reasonably good idea of the job's value and difficulty level. So if you have a lot of valuables you have to do your darnedest to raise the job's difficulty: make the break in take time, be noisy, and generally draw attention, or forcing the robbers to leave a lot of evidence behind.

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#38
post #2

It's entertaining watching the Lock Picking Lawyer's videos. He's very good. And far too many locks are embarrassingly bad. Lockpicking ought to be exponentially hard. You should have to try all the pin position combinations. Something like 5^6 for a 6-pin cylinder. But is in practice, it's not much worse than linear. You can tell when you're making forward progress. That's considered a total fail in a cryptographic…

I have no proof but I suspect the LPL to practice the lock before recording the video so it looks like effortless.

In some I'm sure he does, but there are some videos of him receiving a sealed package and opening the package (and the lock inside) in a single take.

Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no proof but I suspect the LPL to practice the lock before recording the video so it looks like effortless.

In some I'm sure he does, but there are some videos of him receiving a sealed package and opening the package (and the lock inside) in a single take. Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY

Who's to tell he didn't send the package to himself? I'm probably too cynic...

I find it odd he hasn't ever found a lock that would defeat him (I didn't watch all his videos though).

Re: Getting Started with Lockpicking

#40
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you'll like this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd-ZIIcgzPI .

I'd note that for a motorcycle disc brake I wouldn't complain about this. If it takes a lockpicking artist more than a minute to pick it while being able to move it around in three dimensions it would take so time on the street too.

Totally. I don’t think LPL really evaluates the rest of the lock either. How is the drill protection? How does it hold up to an angle grinder?
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