Unauthorised Access: Physical Penetration Testing For IT Security Teams

5.1. Lock Picking as a Hobby

Like everything else in this book, I want to keep the focus on the practical. That means first and foremost doing exactly what I said I would and show you how to pick locks. However you should be warned that lock picking is an extremely addictive pass time and that at some point (hopefully soon) you're going to want to move beyond the simple methods that I can provide in a single chapter. Luckily, there are various clubs and associations you can join to mingle with other likeminded souls (particularly in Germany and the Netherlands where lock picking is a competition sport). These clubs are the places where the most research takes place into the means and methods of defeating new locking mechanisms and developing new methods of compromising the old ones. If you're interested in learning more about lock picking and its practical implications I urge to check out TOOOL – The Open Organization Of Lockpickers. These guys are active in the US (http://www.toool.us) and in the Netherlands (http://www.toool.nl) but all Chapters are very welcoming of questions and newcomers.

It is impossible to understand how to open locks without keys if you don't have a solid grasp of how a lock works. Different mechanisms work in different ways but the terminology is the same and if you can understand the concepts behind the most popular type of lock – the pin tumbler shown in Figure 5.1 – then other mechanisms won't trouble you unduly. Figure 5.2 shows a side view.

The following ...