Ever since Wired wrote an heroic epic about the Dutch Open in 2004 it
has become an event that lures people from all over the world to a
cosy youth hostel in Sneek for a weekend they will remember.
This year there is another ‘Dutch Open’. From Friday November 10 till
Sunday November 12 it will take place in Sneek (Friesland, The
Netherlands). As always in the Wigledam youth hostel.
We are currently collecting prizes from different manufacturers and
other sponsors. EVVA was kind enough to donate a ‘collectors item’ box
filled with state of the art cut-away locks. This box covers the
Magnetic MCS, 3KS, DUAL and DPI/DPE locks. You might think this is a
guaranteed first price. However other manufacturers have promised
prizes too. And the winner has the first choice to select whatever
prize is available. The prizes will be discussed on the weblog as they
come in.
We already received many international requests asking if it is
possible to join. Others write on public fora that they will be
attending for sure, without bothering to ask us if that is ok.
Probably they think if it is called the ‘Dutch Open’, and one of
Toool’s O’s stands for ‘open’, we will let everybody in. This is not
true. Currently we are FULL. There is no more room for spectators or
people that want to visit. We are real sorry, but the limit has been
reached. Fire regulations are very strict in the Netherlands and we
will get in trouble with the fire department if we let more people in.
So we can not make any exceptions.
For those participating in the championships there will be a 10
euro fee. For this you will receive at least one of the brand new
locks used at the championships and hopefully you will win one of the
fabulous prizes. A lottery will make two attendees that did not win
any of the other prizes happy. Trough luck of the draw a nice cut-away
lock and a special pick tool will find a new owner. So it is always
worth your while to participate the championships. You might loose
during the games yet still get lucky in the lottery.
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The only thing we do know for sure is that the championships will take
place on Saturday from 11:00 till approximately 16:00. The rest of the
schedule will be determined later since we are still negotiating with
some speakers and setting up things.
It is important to note the rest of the schedule is only available for
Ssdev and Toool members, as well as for the lucky few that are allowed
in.
Some people already promised to do the following presentation/activity:
‘keys to heaven’ STASI opening tools and techniques (Arthur Meister)
In this workshop Arthur will show you some exotic opening tools and
techniques used by the former east German secret service ‘STASI’
(Staatssicherheit). Only locks the former east German government could
open without a trace where allowed back in the days. The internal code
name for the tools and techniques to open locks was ‘himmel Schlüsseln’
(keys to heaven). In this workshop you will learn how to bypass a
trabant car in under 30 seconds.
‘new state of the art US lock’, a challenge by Marc Tobias
Marc Tobias will present a new US brand lock. He will explain into
technical details why he thinks this new lock is secure. And he will
challenge the lockpickers if they can open this new lock without
damaging it. The first one to pick this lock will receive a nice
reward. Note: this challenge is just for internal use. The manufacturer
will not claim it is a secure lock because we could not pick it, or
vice versa. It is just a simple challenge to see who is more clever.
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‘Chubb Manifoil combination lock’ by mike van der stelt
Mike van der Stelt will do a presentation about the history and
evolution of the Chubb Manifoil safe lock. This combination lock has
been the UK government’s security standard for many years. These locks
are hard to come by but Mike will bring a wide range of them for you
to see and play with. You might want to take a close look at the top
piece of his collection: a security container that is in use with the
UK government to store top secret documents.
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‘Safecracking Without a Trace’ by Eric Schmiedl
In this workshop Eric will cover the art of combination lock
manipulation. This workshop will also cover the S&G manipulation-proof
lock, radiographic attack, robot dialing, robot manipulation, the
Mas-Hamilton X-07, and plain stupid lock design.
‘Keyshop and Lockshop ++’ by Steffen and Ssdev
During the Dutch open a basic lockshop will be present. During the
rest of the weekend some more high security tools will be on sale. At
the keyshop some nice key cutting machines are ready to serve you.
This includes an ez-entrie machine that creates blanks for
high-security copy restricted keys, machines to cut keys to code, copy
machines for straight and dimple keys and a huge collection of blanks
to make your own bumpkeys or do other experiments with. So you would
better make sure to bring these ‘impossible to copy’ keys to Sneek.
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‘high security car locks’ and ‘advanced bumping’ (Barry Wels)
Two ‘hands on’ workshops.
Barry will bring a nice collections of car locks and tools to
open/decode them. This will include the famous Wendt BMW opener, some
13 songs tools (opel and others), a ford tibbe (disk lock) opener and
many more. And more informal there will be an experiment with some of
the most high security sidebar locks. A brave manufacturer send us
these locks to see if we can bypass them. Some of these sidebar
mechanisms have pins that have to be lifted to a specific height and
rotated to a certain angle. Can the conventional pins in these lock be
bumped if you know the sidebar combination? Lets find out in Sneek.
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‘Meal of the Champions’ by Fiona Ivanov
Get ready for a real treat!
People who have attended the Dutch Open before know that meals and
dinners are always well taken care of in Sneek. Gea Schmidt and her
crew are well known and respected for their cooking skills. This time
however we will have a Fiona Ivanov come over to prepare the ‘meal of
the champions’ on Saturday. Fiona is responsible for lots and lots of
cooking recipes in a very well read cooking magazine in the Netherlands.
This meal will be followed by the famous Saturday night Toool party.
We are still negotiating some presentations that cover safe opening,
more special/exotic locks and possibly a Han Fey presentation. Han
will be present for sure and bring (cutaway/abloy) locks and
interesting stories to tell. Paul Crouwel will bring his famous
‘Russian lock’ as well as some other interesting locks and tools.
Needless to say all ‘Dutch Open’ attendees have a story to tell and
information to share. Joining the Dutch Open is a lockpickers dream.
So far we have received confirmation from American, English, German,
French, Swedish and Dutch participants. Do not hesitate and register
today: Send a mail to toool@xs4all.nl for more information.
Press/media is also welcome at this event. But you also need to
register at forehand. Please send us a mail with your request.
And last but not least: How much does attending the Dutch Open cost?
That is a complicated matter. The most simple answer is 65 euro for
the ‘all in’ event. This includes a place to sleep, three warm meals,
two breakfasts, free beer (!) and/or other drinks.
It gets more complicated if you only want to attend specific parts of
the Dutch Open and/or sleep in the nearby hotel (or at home). Attending
Fri-Sun will cost 40 euro and include all meals and free drinks.
And it gets even more complicated when people only attend one day,
or only stay for dinner or the party on Saturday. We were forced to
think about these details and came up with the following pricing
scheme:
Dinner, Sleep over one night and breakfast 37.50 per person (includes party and free drinks).
Sleep over one night, breakfast, NO dinner 30 euro (includes party and free drinks/beer)
Only attend dinner and party 20 euro
Only attend party on Saturday 15 euro (includes free drinks)
only attend dinner 10 euro
On Friday dinner will be served at 20:00, on Saturday at 18:00 and on
Sunday around 17:00.
For children there will be a discount. Usually this is 50% of what the
parents/adults pay. If you are a student or do not have much money we
can work something out too. Just mail us. The goal of this event is to
have as many interesting people attend as possible.
If you like, I would be happy to give the \’Safecracking Without a Trace\’ presentation that I gave at HOPE and Defcon.
Eric: Great! I added your presentation to the list. Maybe we should extend the weekend to a week if more people want to do a presentation…
Adrian, Michigan inventor, Stephen Maples raised eyebrows, expectations and blood-pressure among the lock-smithing, picking, and manufacturing community last weekend at the world’s largest convention of covert intrusion specialists, DEFCON 15 in Las Vegas. Mr. Maples disclosed a patent-pending Sequence Lock design in which the pins of the lock shift in a predetermined sequence which causes a cam to move and only the motion of the cam operates the lock. The simple yet innovative lock design was welcomed by all. One attendee stated that in the three years since the need to design a lock not susceptible to “lock-bumping†became obvious, “only the Sequence Lock has risen to meet the challenge.†(Lock-bumping is a simple technique for bypassing the key on virtually all locks, about which more follows.). In addition to being bump-proof, the Sequence Lock design makes the bypass method of traditional pin-picking a statistical impossibility, since there are over a trillion, trillions of possible combinations
After viewing a working prototype of the design at the DEFCON convention’s lock picking booth on opening day, locksmiths the following morning reported a sleepless night considering the implications of its innovative design. An editor of Non Destructive Entry magazine declared the invention to be “the most important lock design in the last fifteen years.†A State Department official involved in embassy security, who received a private briefing on the application of the design to a mechanical crypto-logic lock, described the pin sequenced cam as being â€The 80 cent piece of metal that will keep the NSA (National Security Agency) busy for the next 30 years.â€
Following the successful introduction of the concept at DEFCON, Maples and his company, Acer Sequence Locks, have publicly committed to fabricate preproduction examples of the Matrix Sequence LockTM and hope to bring his new locks to the Dutch Open lockpicking competition in the Netherlands later this year. If space can be made for his novel design at the Dutch Open, Maples will challenge expert lockpickers worldwide to attempt to open his lock in exchange for a cash prize.
When asked about the prospects for a successful new-product penetration in the $27 billion per year lock industry, whose existing suppliers are more notorious than the automotive sector for the ‘not invented here’ syndrome and for expertise in advertising rather than design, Maples referred to the demonstration at DEFCON 15 in which a 14 year old girl opened the same Medeco locks installed on the Capitol buildings and in the White House in seconds using the ‘lock-bumping’ bypass technique.
“We believe there is a healthy niche for locks which provide functional security rather than merely symbolic. In addition, pricing will be a pleasant surprise considering how little real protection has been afforded by today’s most expensive locks.†Maples stated, “What we’ve seen here demonstrated by other presenters is that, without exception, every other lock can be breached. No one opened ours. We believe our design for the Matrix Sequence LockTM is quite simply the best lock on the planet.â€
I have a safe (American combination lock from 1989 or so) that I have
lost the combination to AND it was changed from the original about 4 years ago and not reported to American safe so their info is the original combination. Is there someone in the Las Vegas area that
can “manipulate?” this lock? I don’t want it drilled and I don’t
have a lot of money and am not sure what it would cost.
Thanks!