May 20, 2005

Your Laptop Lock Is Worthless

I know that professional lock-picker experts can open just about any lock. However, I didn't realize, until yesterday, how easy it was to open the locks from Kensington, and others that are made for laptops. Many of these "cylinder" holed locks, similar to what you find on a bike lock can be opened with a BIC pen or hard cardboard (like that toilet paper is wrapped around.

In a Sep 2004 article, Wired Magazine writes A 50-year-old lock design was rendered useless last week when a brief post to an internet forum revealed the lock can be popped open with a cheap plastic pen.

On Sunday, bike enthusiast and network security consultant Chris Brennan described opening an expensive Kryptonite bike lock using a ballpoint pen.

Wired has a video of the lock being picked with a pen and I have a video I downloaded showing the lock being picked with a roll of toilet paper card board.

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