That SHOULD have been difficult…

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SECURITY BRIEFING:

I frequently tell people a couple unnervingly geeky things:

• Privacy is an illusion.
• Everything is disproportion.

The first point struck true tonight in a less-digital way. I will go into detail here in this post, but the usual legal disclaimers apply: don’t do what I did on someone else’s house. Don’t do what I did for illegal stuff, don’t be stupid, and don’t blame me if you are.

I went on a four mile walk with Kari today on some of Bellingham more scenic trails. In the process my only house key fell off my key chain somehow (my guess is it broke) and I had no way in through my dead bolted apartment door hours later with the sun retreating being the islands (which I can see form where I currently sit in my home-office, and it’s beautiful).

After a couple calls to the locksmiths, I decided that it wouldn’t be worth my time to have someone help me with my situation. Most of them told me that Schlag locks are VERY difficult to pick, and they’d charge me $50 to drive out here and tell me for sure they can’t do it. I went to my parents house, called our locksmith friend, and Googled “how to pick a lock.”

My end strategy was simple: get a 3/16 inch drill bit and drill out my lock. Most locks are made out of brass which is good for two reasons: 1) it is very soft and easy to drill through 2) because it’s so soft it actually smooths around the drill bit, allowing you to drill through the lock and leave a perfectly smooth chamber (more on this later).

I used a center punch to create a divit exactly above the key-hole, and about 1/16 an inch above the tumbler. Then I used my 3/16 bit to drill into both the tumbler and the cylinder. This is here brass is great: I was actually drilling through the pins an the tumbler at once, but since they are brass they fused into one solid, soft sliding part… i.e. no pins to drip into my new chamber and foul things up.

Once I drilled in a ways the lock gave way and I turned it with a screwdriver with essentially no effort whatsoever.

That’s it. Seriously, it was that easy. Took a whole 60 seconds with my Dad’s uber powerful Craftsman model 315.10491 1200 RPM drill (grunt grunt grunt!). I could have done it while someone was sleeping inside.

This brings up a GREAT lesson in security, on and off-line. IT has always been and I suspect always will be true: if someone is physically there, there’s little you can do to protect yourself. You Mac owners, some time type:

SU

then

passwd [username]

(where username is ANYONE’S password).

For off-line security, even a biometric lock can be drilled through. Also, say you use a lock that can’t be broken and you installed bullet-proof windows and a security system. Someone can drill out your window, cut your phone and power lines, and get in and out without even using your fancy biometric lock.

NEW rule number one: Security and Privacy is an illusion.