Skills like lock picking and illicit key duplication are rarely used in thefts. The reason is simple, it is a lot quicker & easier to simply kick the door in or pry open a window. Also the thief doesn’t need to try to hide the fact that here has been a break-in, the missing TV & stereo speaks volumes.
If someone is stealing mail for identify theft purposes, however, the crooks don’t want anyone to know that things are missing. If, for example, your locked mailbox had been pried open you would immediately suspect that checks or credit card information may have been stolen and cancel them. That is why ‘arrow keys’ are the Holy Grail to mail thieves. What are arrow keys? They are the master keys the U.S. Post Office uses to open all of the locked mail boxes along a certain route (a confiscated set is shown above). The post office tries to keep close track of the keys (they are supposed to be checked out and back in by Postal workers each time) but that hasn’t stopped criminals from obtaining the keys in various ways.
In fact, the methods used to get arrow keys range from as simple as a Postal employee gone bad (like the rural mail carrier who sold stolen postal keys) to sophisticated methods such as the ones used by Joseph Lau.
It appears that sometime around 2005 Mr. Lau graduated from using simple mailbox ‘fishing’ methods (using a sticky block of wood on a wire to retrieve letters from a drop box) to creating his own arrow key production technique. The method he used was to secretly video tape Postal Workers opening mail boxes along their routes. He would then enlarge still photos of the key and use that to cut a home-made duplicate. In all, Mr. Lau produced 23 counterfeit arrow keys and obtained almost $500,000 in stolen checks before being caught.
Mr. Lau is not alone, however, in the ‘custom’ arrow key creation business. A quick search of the Internet turned up several others, including Wendy Trail in 1999, Steven Gregory Freitas, also in 1999 (after a similar arrest in 1996), Craig Alden St. Clair in 2002 and Michael Hannah in 2006.
Barry’s ‘Must Read’ Blog
Barry ‘The Key’ Wels is a co-founder and noted leader of the ground breaking TOOOL.NL locksport organization. Based in the Netherlands, TOOOL not only practices lock picking as a sport, but also actively researches locks & lock security. This places Barry on the cutting edge of lock picking & bypass techniques, as well as, giving him access to locks & devices that the average person would never see. Fortunately for us, Barry takes us along in his journey at his blog, Black Bag.
Although I have mentioned several times the most popular lock picking forum online today, LockPicking101.com, here are several others that I have come across:
Bumping Heads
The recent attention in the local and national media about lock ‘bumping’ (a quick, low skill lock opening technique) has caused the ALOA (Associated Locksmiths of America) to release a statement condemning the release of such information by “attention seeking individuals”. They also state that by publicizing the situation a serious security problem is being created: ALOA Statement
In turn, Marc Weber Tobias, a noted lawyer in the security field, has responded with his own statement regarding the rights of consumers to know about potential flaws in the products they buy. He also points out that knowledge about this technique had ‘leaked out’ to the Internet long before any of the recent news reports occurred and is readily available to anyone: Marc Tobias Statement
Recently there has been a rash of ‘bumping’ (a simple lock opening technique using a specially cut key, see the photo to the right) and lock picking in the news media. Here are links to several of the articles and reports:
YouTube.com, the popular, online amateur video site, hosts more than 24,000 (mostly bad) karaoke videos. However they also have over 200 lock picking videos. Here are snapshots from just a few:
Locksport International (a hobbyist group dedicated to promoting lock picking as a sport) has released a colorful (some say ‘comic book’ styled) guide to lock picking. Actually the guide covers a lot more than just that. It has sections on how locks work, how to disassemble them, how to re-pin the cylinder (change the working key) and even how to make your own lock picks. It also admonishes the reader to strictly follow the lock picker’s credo:
“You may only pick locks that you own, or those to which
you’ve been given explicit permission to pick by the rightful owner”
You can find the entire guide on the LockSport International website at: http://locksport.com/LSIGuide/lsiguide.pdf
LockPicking101 Continued Growth
As of of today (11/23/2006, Thanksgiving Day in the United States) Lockpicking101.com has grown to over 26,000 members. Below is a chart showing the recent growth of Lockpicking101:
(click HERE for a bigger image)
Notice that membership has accelerated significantly in the last 3 months. The cause of this rapid growth is both an increased awareness about lock picking as a hobby and recent publicity over the security concerns raised by such techniques as ‘bumping’.
Another article on the KGB Security website shows how a fire resistant ‘safe’ is vulnerable to a $1.25 can opener and a kitchen knife. Never confuse fire resistance with burglary resistance. Check out the article and slide show here.
KGB Security (named for Kel, Geoff and Brock Phillips) in Queensland Australia has a nice article (and videos to boot) about bouncing a safe. If you aren’t familiar with bouncing, it is the technique of hitting or dropping a safe to temporarily displace the pin or bar which keeps the handle from moving. As pointed out in the article, you often get what you pay for when purchasing a $29 safe.
Check out the article and watch the videos here.