> Typical combination lock Now hands up everyone who's TSA luggage lock combination is 9-1-1. Social engineering is the most interesting cracking to me.
I prefer 666 as a subtle reminder to the thief that they are being naughty.
Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
111–118 of 118 posts
Re: Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
#112I thought the bbc had mis-lablled a photo of Gennady Korotkevich. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennady_Korotkevich )
Gennady Korotkevich is a competitive coder who go's by the handle _tourist, so I read this headline as about him cracking a safe
Re: Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
#113Everyone is so amazed that he opened the safe “on the first try” but the article also says, “Like the Mills family, other museum visitors played around with trying to open it, with no success.“ Moreover the museum had had the safe since the mid 90s, at least 20 years... sounds like lots of tries by tourists... is it really so surprising that someone eventually opened it? Probably people don’t sit there all day, they try once or twice then let the next person have a go... so maybe 50% chance that the person that opened it would get it on their “first try”. (If not the article would have said “almost immediately” which would be nearly as newsworthy.) Sounds like the multiple comparisons fallacy.
More-moreover, not unlikely there are multiple safes in public places like this in the world (I have seen at least one before in an antique shop that people would try like this) but this is the one that got opened and therefore written up in the news... sounds like survivorship bias.
Re: Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
#114Sort of a buzz kill that the safe did not contain something far more interesting.
Re: Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Humans are terrible at picking random numbers, it's quite likely many people tried the same thing (more or less).
But if the code was set by humans, it just makes finding it even more likely...
Only if somebody uses a human generated number (as done in this case). If it's genuinely random then it could take humans quite a while.
Re: Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
#116Re: Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
#117During high school, I played a lot of morrowind and thought it was cool to learn how to pick locks. I had already known how to break combination locks, and I already taught myself to open traditional pin and tumbler locks. I saw a number lock with 4 digits and I couldn't help myself. Considering they were just numbers I thought to myself, this is a guaranteed crack. So every day before and after class, I would take a minute to mechanically go through about 50 numbers. Testing numbers is surprisingly quick.
It only took me like 3-4 weeks of testing a few numbers before and after class and I had it open.
The loot? A pair of used gym socks, shoes, and one of those math homework books you write in.
Re: Tourist's lucky guess cracks safe code on first try
#118> "They have no value really, but they are of great interest to us. It gives us a little bit of idea of what the places were like in 1977, '78," said Mr Kibblewhite. This must be the most American thing ever. 40 year old stuff treated like they're ancient.
>This must be the most American thing ever. Guys, who's going to be the one to tell him?
Canada's not in North America?