I was recently introduced to the idea of lock bumping (thanks Steve) and, after doing some further research, discovered that it is a very easy, highly successful method of opening many standard, pin-tumbler locks. There is a simple, informative explanation of this lock-opening technique by Barry Wels and Rop Gronggrijp, members of TOOOL: The Open Organization of Lockpickers (www.toool.nl) in their presentation at What the Hack conference (connectmedia.waag.org/toool/whatthebump.wmv, 1h 37m) and they also produced a white paper (www.toool.nl/bumping.pdf, 11 pages). The conclusion seems to be that key locks are nearing the end of their utility… at least in their current form. I imagine locks will soon be manufactured to specifically combat the findings of these two guys, but retrofitting the world’s doors and lock boxes is a daunting task.

The video above demonstrates some bump-resistant/bump-proof locks. The countermeasures can be simple or complicated but the point is that the majority of locks installed today are susceptible to the bumping attack. I highly suggest watching the presentation and/or reading the white paper simply for personal knowledge, as it’s a very interesting topic. The TOOOL website provides a listing “bump proof” locks, though the prices and distributors may all be European (I haven’t looked).