Posted on 10/28/2006 12:08:44 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
NEWINGTON, Conn. -- On a recent evening in this quiet suburb, Matthew Fiddler hunched over a door lock, jiggling it with a pick and poking it with a wrench. In just a few moments, it popped open.
Mr. Fiddler wasn't locked out and he isn't a thief. Instead, the 36-year-old father of four, clad in khakis and a blue button-down shirt, was seated around a table with a handful of people who pick locks for fun. The group, a chapter of Locksport International, gets together monthly to poke and prod everything from padlocks to dead-bolt cylinders. They swap tips, hold contests and eat pizza.
Most say they do it for the challenge. "It's like doing a Rubik's Cube in the dark," says Josh Nekrep, a construction sales representative and Locksport's administrative director. And for Mr. Nekrep and others, it carries a broader mission: finding and exposing the vulnerabilities in common locks so people can better protect themselves.
"The public has a right to know if some $30 lock they bought is not secure," says Mr. Fiddler, the Connecticut chapter president, who, like many in his group, works in computer security.
That philosophy has riled lock manufacturers and law-enforcement officials, who believe disseminating information about lock weaknesses can only encourage illicit activity. It has also split the locksmith community, putting them at odds about whether picking techniques should be disclosed. Fueling their concern: the spread of Internet videos that show how to pick many types of locks.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Well, I always believed that booby traps should be legalized as security devices.
This is really pathetic..find something else to do with your time
"That philosophy has riled lock manufacturers and law-enforcement officials, who believe disseminating information about lock weaknesses can only encourage illicit activity."
So.. knowing there is a weakness in their product is not an incentive to correct it as quickly as possible?
Hey if I could do it, anyone could.
"General/Chat"
Never mind. You moved this to Free Republic's chat graveyard due to the subject matter?
It's a reallly biggg inherant weakness, thousands of years old.
Locks keep honest people honest, they just slow down the dishonest ones a little.
I used to do a little locksmithing while in college. My best time for picking both the door knob lock and the deadbolt to her front door was nine seconds.
Should have read...I used to do a little locksmithing while in college. My best time for picking both the door knob lock and the deadbolt to my girlfriend's front door was nine seconds.
Ah, I see you've noticed the average police chief/officer's thought process when asked for comment is hardly constructive - that would require effort. Instead, they trot the standard lines:
- Sobriety checkpoints are about safety
- Lock your doors & windows during the holidays (do people leave them wide open the rest of the year?)
- Use a light timer
- Allow for extra stopping distance when the roads are wet
etc. etc.
Newspapers and news writers drive me absolutely mental. I hate to side with those who never read the papers and call them fishwrap (with some justification) but the repetition and the simplemindedness with which some subjects are approached is absolutely beyond the pale.
A lazy writer asks a lazy cop for a quote and this is the kind of no-kidding response we get. AND....they trot it out like it's some rare pearl of wisdom!
It's done by the South Park Guys, it rips pro sports a few new ones!
made sense to me in first post, LOL
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