Lock Picking Columbus - August 14th, 2024

Tonight we're back from DEFCON 32. We met a lot of cool people, including PinLifter, who helped me determine the reason I couldn't pick my American Standard 1100 was because a spring was completely...dead.

Thank you again PinLifter! Hope to see you again next year at DEFCON.

The TOOOL village was high-traffic the entire con, but I found some time to sit down at a few different tables and talk, help, and learn from others.

I even got some cool new ideas from the village operations itself:

• Stickers for unlocking levels of locks
• Visual references for different types of key/security pins
• A single-sheet reference to walk-through your lock picking
• A lock-fence for a more realistic picking experience
• Merch. Stickers. All of it.

Tonight we'll have more TOOOL stickers, a couple of new locks (including trigger locks to test the security of) and of course the Sparrow practice safe.

DEFCON 33 Badge?

While I was at DEFCON, I picked up a free lanyard from the Crypto & Privacy Village. I also had my American Standard cut-away lock (the broken one described above) so I attached it to my lanyard. This allowed me to practice picking the lock while I was sitting down anywhere. The only challenge was carrying the pick and turning tool.

So my idea for a DEFCON 33 badge is to make a similar thing, but add in what was missing. Basically, something like this:

1. A lanyard. Perhaps with some relevant measurements or lock-pick references on it.
2. A cutaway lock attached to the lanyard.
3. The keys for the cutaway lock, in two styles: locked to the shackle (advanced), or a removable key ring (standard.)
4. An appropriate lock-pick and turning tool for the lock
5. Some sort of simple storage for the lock-pick and turning tool, attached to the lanyard (or maybe like an attachable pick-card)

I'm going to try and make this happen, at least for me, but maybe for others. I think the cost would be around $100 (at retail, the machined lock is $95 normally.)

Security of your hotel door

This is a pretty neat little tool that helps with many common hotel door types. It works in the event of physical or electrical defeating of the lock mechanism by now allowing the deadbolt to turn. (Waiting for the McNallyOfficial video, right?)

Unfortunately I didn't pick one up, and they aren't available on their website. I'm sure similar items exist elsewhere, so ping me if you know of one.