I have been asking fellow attendees at SAVTA this burning question of deep importance to me. I fear I may get the answer wrong.
A bit of background. I have been busted checking the keyway and hardware as I open a door. Going past a bank, I have told a friend what kind of cylinder is in the night depository. I visited a small town historical museum with 3 rooms of 'stuff' including a big old safe. I was looking at its boltwork and lock for half the time there. And lets face it, I am using a week of vacation to be here.
So help me please. Am I a lock geek? Or a lock nerd?
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Matt Blaze, Computer Scientist takes on locks
For those in the safe community, the name Matt Blaze may not be front and centre but he does have credentials in information security. He turned his computer attention of safe locks a while back and wrote a paper I found most interesting.
Matt Blaze @ crypto.com
Buried in this page are two papers of interest to lock and safe technicians.
One is on safecracking or what we call a manipulation. Another is about masterkeying mechanical locks. For one, he documents the Informed Oracle Attack to escalate authority. (Please use text search in his page to find the papers links directly. If I link to the papers directly, they will download as PDF files instantly.)
His work is not really news in so many ways but it does represent presenting it to a wider audience. How many? Well, the papers were published in 2004. When I first found them, I looked to see if a course was offered in computer security at various colleges and universities. LOTS OF EM. It is reasonable to think these papers have floated past tens of thousands or more of undergraduate students. We are not talking semi-literate and semi-numerate prison convicts. I am talking people who can make sense of the content and for a few hundred dollars find a group two lock to play with and see it works. Once more, security by obscurity fails.
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The contents of this post are released for non-profit or educational use in whole or in part provided this statement and the attribution below are kept attached.
Laux Myth ... Thoughts From a Locksmith
By MartinB, Found @ http://lauxmyth.blogspot.com/
Matt Blaze @ crypto.com
Buried in this page are two papers of interest to lock and safe technicians.
One is on safecracking or what we call a manipulation. Another is about masterkeying mechanical locks. For one, he documents the Informed Oracle Attack to escalate authority. (Please use text search in his page to find the papers links directly. If I link to the papers directly, they will download as PDF files instantly.)
His work is not really news in so many ways but it does represent presenting it to a wider audience. How many? Well, the papers were published in 2004. When I first found them, I looked to see if a course was offered in computer security at various colleges and universities. LOTS OF EM. It is reasonable to think these papers have floated past tens of thousands or more of undergraduate students. We are not talking semi-literate and semi-numerate prison convicts. I am talking people who can make sense of the content and for a few hundred dollars find a group two lock to play with and see it works. Once more, security by obscurity fails.
--- --- --- --- ---
The contents of this post are released for non-profit or educational use in whole or in part provided this statement and the attribution below are kept attached.
Laux Myth ... Thoughts From a Locksmith
By MartinB, Found @ http://lauxmyth.blogspot.com/
Resource for Dialing Diagnostics
Just finished Safe Service and Dialing Diagnostics here at SAFETECH 2010. I think I passed. :-)
I spoke in the last few days about a good summary of this topic on the Sargent and Greenleaf site and took a moment to find it. I have this document in my service van for reference and yet I am not sure how often I have looked at it while doing jobs in the last few years.
S&G Mechanical Safe Lock Guide
Since the link location may change and other resources are there, it may be helpful to know the page from which I found this link.
Safe Lock Trouble-Shooting Resource Center
While this overview is excellent, it is for the one brand. However, many of the concepts are general in nature since a fly can get stuck in a LaGard or Mosler just as well. Also, the spline locations all shift in other brands. I do not feel this lessens its usefulness at all.
I spoke in the last few days about a good summary of this topic on the Sargent and Greenleaf site and took a moment to find it. I have this document in my service van for reference and yet I am not sure how often I have looked at it while doing jobs in the last few years.
S&G Mechanical Safe Lock Guide
Since the link location may change and other resources are there, it may be helpful to know the page from which I found this link.
Safe Lock Trouble-Shooting Resource Center
While this overview is excellent, it is for the one brand. However, many of the concepts are general in nature since a fly can get stuck in a LaGard or Mosler just as well. Also, the spline locations all shift in other brands. I do not feel this lessens its usefulness at all.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
SAFETECH 2010
Well, made it to San Diego for the big SAVTA (Safe and Vault Techicians Association) conference. Met a few other safe guys over some beer and supper but most of it starts tomorrow. I had most of the day to myself and got all the way to Mexico. Literally. I stood in the States and took pictures of the border crossing.
I find the process of learning the trade interesting. Some of this stuff is a big secret and yet no organization with a large number of people keeps a secret well in the long term. And yet, try to search the internet for the drill points to defeat the door on some particular model of safe and you generally will fail. (I have tried and there is little out there to find and I think I have reasonably good research skills.)
Will I tell you everything I see and hear? No. I am thinking most will be boring anyways. I am hoping to make this conference into at least a few posts.
I find the process of learning the trade interesting. Some of this stuff is a big secret and yet no organization with a large number of people keeps a secret well in the long term. And yet, try to search the internet for the drill points to defeat the door on some particular model of safe and you generally will fail. (I have tried and there is little out there to find and I think I have reasonably good research skills.)
Will I tell you everything I see and hear? No. I am thinking most will be boring anyways. I am hoping to make this conference into at least a few posts.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
My Keys Cost $1500! Really??
How much does a key cost? At one level, it is 2 or 3 bucks. You give your existing key to the staff of a store and it gets mounted into a machine and a copy is cut. This is common for house keys.
However, there is a completely different answer. At our provincial locksmith conference, I was told of a different way of looking at this.* The cost of your key ring is the total of your house and automobile insurance deductibles. Look the two deductibles up and if your key ring is stolen and later used to get your car and rob your house, you get to pay this amount before any insurance claim.
Search Google News for 'stolen keys' and you will find it is a common method to get access to cars. This is a reasonable consequence of the electronics in keys in many car models. Without a key, the ignition column can be smashed open but the car will not start.
The only case where I have direct experience, involved a coat stolen from the staff area in the back of a big restaurant. The back door was left unlocked routinely to let other staff enter unhindered. A cook was done his shift and found his coat missing with keys in the pocket. He looked outside and the car was gone. I entered the picture to meet the wife as soon as possible to change the keying on the house. The risk of a thief using stolen keys is highest in the first few hours and the car theft proved the culprit was willing to use the stolen keys. The house was fine when she got home which was faster then the husband who was taking a taxi. (When I was done, the car was reported stolen but police had not yet found it.)
In this case, they may pay the cost of the insurance deductible for the car and then the cost to rekey the house. Rekeying a car is usually far more costly.
Changing the keying of a house has many different prices. Some townhouses have one locked door with one deadbolt. That is a half hour call. Some luxury homes have over 12 locks all over the place. Also, in a crisis like this the change has to be made as fast as possible to be the most effective. Locksmiths are like plumbers and have day rates, evening rates and late night rates. The client has to decide if the price is worth it. Go ahead and compare to your insurance deductibles.
* My apologies but can not recall who this is or I would give credit. If you remember telling me over lunch in the coffee shop of the Capri Centre, do let me know.
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The contents of this post are released for non-profit or educational use in whole or in part provided this statement and the attribution below are kept attached.
Laux Myth ... Thoughts From a Locksmith
By MartinB, Found @ http://lauxmyth.blogspot.com/
However, there is a completely different answer. At our provincial locksmith conference, I was told of a different way of looking at this.* The cost of your key ring is the total of your house and automobile insurance deductibles. Look the two deductibles up and if your key ring is stolen and later used to get your car and rob your house, you get to pay this amount before any insurance claim.
Search Google News for 'stolen keys' and you will find it is a common method to get access to cars. This is a reasonable consequence of the electronics in keys in many car models. Without a key, the ignition column can be smashed open but the car will not start.
The only case where I have direct experience, involved a coat stolen from the staff area in the back of a big restaurant. The back door was left unlocked routinely to let other staff enter unhindered. A cook was done his shift and found his coat missing with keys in the pocket. He looked outside and the car was gone. I entered the picture to meet the wife as soon as possible to change the keying on the house. The risk of a thief using stolen keys is highest in the first few hours and the car theft proved the culprit was willing to use the stolen keys. The house was fine when she got home which was faster then the husband who was taking a taxi. (When I was done, the car was reported stolen but police had not yet found it.)
In this case, they may pay the cost of the insurance deductible for the car and then the cost to rekey the house. Rekeying a car is usually far more costly.
Changing the keying of a house has many different prices. Some townhouses have one locked door with one deadbolt. That is a half hour call. Some luxury homes have over 12 locks all over the place. Also, in a crisis like this the change has to be made as fast as possible to be the most effective. Locksmiths are like plumbers and have day rates, evening rates and late night rates. The client has to decide if the price is worth it. Go ahead and compare to your insurance deductibles.
* My apologies but can not recall who this is or I would give credit. If you remember telling me over lunch in the coffee shop of the Capri Centre, do let me know.
--- --- --- --- ---
The contents of this post are released for non-profit or educational use in whole or in part provided this statement and the attribution below are kept attached.
Laux Myth ... Thoughts From a Locksmith
By MartinB, Found @ http://lauxmyth.blogspot.com/
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