Locksmithing Blog

According to this week’s New Scientist, there is a new threat to our credit cards from Russia, which the banks and everyone else totally overlooked. Yet it is obvious, even without hindsight.

The why is obvious - millions of dollars there for the taking.

The how is very neat - a card is used to extract a printout of the other cards used, and their PINs, and it even encrypts the info so that the boss doesn’t have to get his hands dirty, and the foot soldier can’t steal the info for himself. Perhaps the funniest element is the fact there was also a way to have the cash machine eject the cash cassette! Surely anyone with a brain would see that as an obvious issue?

Windows is known to have many hundreds of thousands of viri, malware and trojan bits of software installed on the millions of machines in use, so how come did no-one at the banks think about how it might be an issue to use an ATM based on Windows?

These scams show that not only were most banks useless at their expert field of not going bankrupt, but they also messed up badly when working outside their chosen specialist subjects.

You can read the article in full here (though in a few weeks it will be subscribers only for the full article.)

If it was as easy as pay a few hundred pounds, take a short training course and earn more money than a doctor, then doctors would be doing [locksmithing]! ¹

Martin Pink, Rapid Locksmiths, Nottingham

The state of the locksmith industry is a poor one. Training houses are churning out hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new “locksmiths” every week. There are now estimated to be over 100 locksmith trainers in the UK ², so you have to wonder where all those locksmiths are setting up, and where the mythical £1000+ a week is meant to be coming from.

If you are redundant, or leaving the forces, don’t bother becoming a locksmith. Even the best are struggling, and the phone books are full of those advertising for the small section of the market that is lock-out work.

Even if you are the best, will you afford the pages of advertising bought by the national franchises, who churn through half-trained locksmiths, paying them the few pounds they desperately need, before they go bust, whilst feathering their nests?

Or to compete against these same desperate folks when they offer to do a job cutting out the national for £5 over cost? Perhaps most tricky, is will you have the balls of steel required to stand there and tell a customer that the job you quoted at £40 will now be £250 because it was hard, or because you broke their lock, or because you have them over a barrel, because it is dark and cold and wet,  or because you have to make the mortgage payment - and this was your only job this week?? - because you only did 15 hours of training before setting up?

Do some research before you start up, and you will find that (if you are in the UK) there are already many well-established outfits struggling, and time-served locksmiths leaving the profession to make more money as plumbers and joiners.

There are also plenty who did a two day course, failed to get even one job from it, and then… set themselves up as trainers! You can imagine the quality of the course, cadged from an already short course, then regurgitated to those who know no better. It’s one way of making the course pay for itself. Often, it’s the only way.

Be careful out there.

(And the same goes for those needing a locksmith as wanting to be a locksmith!)

---

1 - http://www.keyzine.co.uk/OnlineNews/May09-1/8PagesTraining.pdf
2 - A look at Google’s adverts reveals 12 companies paying for you just to click their advert as at 12th June 2009. The actual search results contain dozens more.

Discreet Security now has both the skills and equipment to repair all your uPVC “plastic” doors and windows, from failed or jamming locks and locking strips, right through re-glazing a failed unit, to repairing both structural and cosmetic damage to both white and wood-effect PVCu windows and doors.

Repairing a frame made of unplasticised PolyVinylChloride, which is the “white plastic” door and window (and, increasingly, barge boards, soffits, fascias and gable ends) seen on many houses build or remodelled in the last 30 or so years, is now possible, with repairs from just £50 for minor repairs, up to around £200 for major work*. While £200 might sound like a lot, it is still less than half the cost of replacing the entire door!

The Konig repairs system is ideal for the repair of crowbar damage, drill holes, even large cracks and the sometimes brutal holes left by the un-sophisticated 2-day course locksmiths. Rather than being forced to buy an entire new uPVC unit, you could get it repaired by us for rather less. And the results are, in skilled hands, mind-blowing, with even large damages flawlessly repaired.

Repairs are also possible to the “woodgrain” finished PVC systems, those that look like wood but are uPVC underneath. Damage to these normally shows through the skin to reveal the white material underneath. Again in skilled hands the results are amazing, with the repair visible only under the closest scrutiny.

*The most extreme example we have seen was a double door that was hit by a reversing builders lorry, which shattered the entire base and both doors. This was fully repaired and the glazed units replaced, for around £500. The replacement costs for these newly fitted units in the brand new house were over £2000!

As part of the latest Home Office “I’ve been caught fiddling my expenses” initative, the Home Secretary has annouced that, in a clearly anti-competitive move, they will be giving away B&Q vouchers for 15% off the cost of locks and other home security equipment.

For the duration of this initative, for as long as they are valid, Discreet Security will be accepting these vouchers for money off any security item we have in stock. Lock cylinders, night latches, BS locks, lever locks, padlocks, chains, window locks and additional door security, even security head screws, all now have 15% off. Please note that this does not include labour charges, as these are already very reasonable, especially if pre-booked, and nor does it include emergency call-outs and key cutting. It does include uPVC door repairs though, despite them being unobtainable from B&Q.

Don’t waste your money on something unsuitable and DIY - call an expert! It’s not a wobbly shelf, it’s your family’s safety.

Last week I went on a training day hosted in London at Alridges, a specialist lock and hardware suppliers, to learn the in’s and out’s of the Austrian company EVVAs range of locks.

The range of products available are second-to-none, and we (6 ICL members) all got to play with the very highest security locks currently available for the average door. We were treated to a tour of the premises, as well as some freebies, but the high point was getting to play with, and re-pin, the newer high security systems such as the DPI, DPX, EPS, EPX, Dual, 3KS+ and MCS EVVA locks.

Believe me when I say that these are locks that few would enjoy having to get past, and at the moment, a lock such as the Dual, with 12 sliders and two sidebars, anti-bump, anti-snap, drill resistant, pick-proof and so on, gives you complete assurance that your door has not been compromised. The 3KS system, which stands for “3 Curves System” is an amazingly beautiful yet simple and robust system, which seemingly owes much to the artisan - even the keys are works of art!

Even large suites of mastered cylinders can be had, across a wide range of profiles, such as Scandanavian, Euro, Oval, rim cylinder and mortice, even padlocks, allowing the widest range of flexibility and ease of use immaginable in a high security mechanical key system. If you are interested in any of these high end locks, which are available with clever features such as master keying, suited operation, over-rides, classroom locks (which can only be locked with the key, and unlocked with the inside handle) and many other bright ideas, please drop us a line.

My advice to you last time about going away is to be circumspect in public and specific with those you know and trust. Especially be aware of systems like Twitter and Facebook, where your updates will often make it clear that you are not at home, and for how long.

Just in the last few days, the papers reported that a rather unpopular figure in the UK was targeted for a visit late at night, the “Fat Cat” banker Sir Fred. He was, and still is, out of the country - he left immediately after the scandle about his £13 million pension arose - and this was widely reported in the news. Once someone tracked down his address, which is a mater of public record and findable for a few pounds online, they could enter it into Google Maps, and, perhaps, StreetView. This gives them a very high resolution map of where they are targetting, along with, in StreetView, good enough photography that they can determine alarm box positions, paths, letterboxes, etc. without ever needing to go near the target address.

How close can we get? Well, the ever-useful Daily Mail published a nice aerial shot of his house, plus a map, and some high-res pictures of it, as well as the fact that his street is “something road, Edinburgh” in a peice decrying StreetView. This isn’t going to happen for most people, though. Generally, you’ll have to either find your own details to hide them, or someone else will find your details to victimise you (perhaps).

Here’s 240 Poplar High Street. I picked it at random. I know it would take me half a day to get to it from Bromyard, and that when I got there, I could park for up to 4 hours between 8:30 and 5:30, but not if I’m in a lorry, because I can clearly read the road traffic sign.
View Larger Map This level of detail means that very little that can be seen from the street is now safe from (remote) prying eyes.

Of course, for a very long time people have done “reccies” of targets. It’s what you do - you go and look around and work out what you want to steal, how to get in, where to run away to, where to park a car. The difference is that now, the CCTV at the site cannot find you, because you were never there. Google logs everything, of course, so you could in theory be tracked down, even if you use a proxy or two, but the odds are far lower than someone recalling a guy peering in the window two days before.

What to do? Well, re-assess, or have an expert re-assess, your security. I’d recommend an ICL member, as we are all reputable and know what we are doing. Some things will be trivial, others will be more expensive, and you will have to determine how much you feel you can justify to yourself for your security. However, for under £100 most places can have their general level of security massively improved. Give us a call!

I’m back, refreshed from a week away, my first proper holiday for some years. Yet I left no online message on the blog to tell our customers. The reasoning is obvious, though some would argue there is no harm, it only takes a few moments to work out where we are based - click the “Contact us” page! - and, indeed, pull up my house on Google Earth (though not yet on StreetView)

From a security point of view, my answering machine simply said that everyone was busy, and to leave a message if we could be of further assistance. This didn’t prevent the phone from ringing at odd hours - three calls around 3am alongside the many others - but when it wasn’t always answered at least people knew most of the story.

Of course, all our large clients were informed, and most of our large clients remembered.

Anyway, my advice to you about going away is to be circumspect in public and specific with those you know and trust. Especially be aware of systems like Twitter and Facebook, where your updates will often make it clear that you are not at home, and for how long.

There have been many people who have reviewed and tested safe combination locks, including large organisations such as Underwriters Labatory and the British Standards Institute. It is the same with door locks, and insurance grade keyed padlocks. However, when I was recently asked to provide a secure combination lock for a set of factory gates, there was nowhere to turn to.

After buying and testing several combination padlocks, I decided to publish my notes, and at that point, I decided that it would be worth testing some of the lower end locks too.

If you use any of the locks given a poor score, you should probably think about upgrading them if your security is important to you. The advice for opening them is limited to very basic manipulation, the kind of thing that most people could work out in a few minutes if they were so inclined. No fancy tools are needed.

I am releasing the paper as “linkware” - you may have a personal or business copy, in exchange for a link back to here. If you are a locksmith, and would be interested in a full copy of this paper, please leave a comment with your website details, and, please link to this site. I will verify it and send you a full copy of the paper to your registered email address, which contains the manipulation process for each of the locks featured. Feedback, as ever, is welcome.

combo-padlock-white-paper-public

We aren’t snowed in, in case you were wondering. We were on Monday, but we are fine now. So if your door isn’t working, whether on your car or home, give us a ring.

Discreet Security has just signed up as the linked provider of the Pickbuster anti-bumping solution.

You can view our new microsite on the Pickbuster website to verify this: http://www.pickbuster.co.uk/Discreet Security

Pickbuster is a relatively simple and low cost solution to the problems presented by lock bumping. Lock bumping has been known for nearly 100 years in the close-knit locksmithing community, but with the growth of sites allowing user content to be easily added, this cat has truely gotten out the bag.  Google returns plenty of results, and a few videos, including mainstream news reports such as this one from the USA.

So, which locks are at risk? In the UK, every single white plastic uPVC door you see is a target, and over 99% of them are vulnerable. A few aren’t, because they are either broken, have unusually high security locks (as even most high security locks are easily beaten with this technique) or they have been treated with Pickbuster already. Perhaps more worryingly still, one “universal” bumpkey freely available online for a few pounds will open about 95% of all of these doors!

Wooden doors aren’t quite so vulnerable, as long as you are locking the mortice lock when going out, and dropping the snib when inside. Lever locks can be bumped, sort of, but it is a technique that has been de-fanged for any modern lever lock with a security rating. They are also far stronger than the latch alone, so do remember to turn that key on your way out!

If you are worried, and would like some free advice, have a read around this site, have a look online (that Google link above is a good start, as is the Pickbuster website) and feel free to leave a question in the comments or send us an email. Remember, we can treat your locks fairly quickly, and stop this threat, and also take a look at your properties security to see what other, often small, changes would enhance your security.