As the above video clearly displays, opening any locked door, is very easy – even for a non-professional lock picker. The Slate article in this Bulletin reports how popular lockpicking (known as locksport) has now become – with training videos and clubs – springing up all over the nation.

Pick a Lock, Any Lock
YouTube makes it easy to learn the finer points of breaking and entering—and locksmiths aren’t happy.
Slate
Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008, at 3:39 PM ET

Locksmiths and lock manufactures have found themselves in a jam. The skills of their trade, passed down through generations under conditions of occult secrecy, have been jimmied open online (subscription required). The professionals are crying foul over enthusiasts of “locksport”—amateur lock pickers who congregate on the Web to discuss how to pick locks. The amateurs do this for fun, not mischief, they say; there’s a sublime thrill in charming a deadbolt to turn your way. And they argue that by finding and publishing flaws in some of the most popular locks on the market—from the locks you’ve got on your front door to those the president has on his—they’re forcing improvements in security. Lock professionals say the opposite is true: that in showing people how to pick locks, hobbyists are swinging your doors wide open to criminals.

This is a familiar tale. Its plot points echo those of many recent computer-security debates. An entrenched community that’s used to working in secret suddenly sees its entire business upended by the secrecy-busting ways of the Internet. It’s a fate suffered by voting machine firms, software companies, and ATM manufacturers. Now it’s happening to locksmiths and lockmakers, too.

But there are a few interesting wrinkles to the skirmish between amateur and professional lock wranglers. For one thing, unlike security-services company Diebold, the locksmiths and lockmakers aren’t just fighting a new crop of activists. They’re fighting a new subculture—really, a new sport.

All of us are trying to stay one step ahead regarding especially our private security. No doubt, techonology is giving us a run, but it still ultimately comes down to the simple things: having a good alarm system in place, dead bolts and sharp-eyed neighbors.

For the full article, please continue on to Slate, Locksport.

BNI Investigators: Street sharp; Web savvy.

Stay safe,

Jon Caspian

Filed under: lockpsort, locks, locpicking, security