No, don’t worry. There will be an event in Sneek this year (Oct 9,10,11,12). It just will not be called ‘The Dutch Open’.

What is missing is a good name for the event. What started as a ‘simple’ lockpick championship turned out now into a multiple day conference that also happens to hosts the championships. More about that on the bottom of this post.

And we are not ready to release a full detailed program for the Dutch Open. The rough outlines are there, but the fine details are missing.

Here is some info already:

I am very proud of the people that will give a presentation at the event in Sneek this year. Just like last year, Peter Field will kick off the open with a 4 or 5 hour presentation about various locking mechanisms from around the world. And to clarify: Peter started off last year by saying he was here to talk about locks, not how to bypass them. It is very clear that he learns from us how we think we can bypass certain techniques, yet will not talk about vulnerabilities he might know off. Another heavyweight presentation will be that of Marc Tobias and Tobias Bluzmanis. They will explain in detail how they cracked the Medeco codebook and how to pick and bump some of the locks. For this purpose Han and I managed to purchase a collection of Medeco bi-axial locks and keys, and even have a special key cutter that can cut angled cuts. In other words: enough material to see if the Tobias hacks really work will be available. Besides Peter and the two Tobiases, Matt Fiddler, Mike van der Stelt, Jord Knaap, Paul Crouwel, St.john Goldfinger, Nigel Tolley, Michael Huebler and hopefully handcuff wizard ‘Ray’ will give presentations.

Besides the missing name for the conference we are not sure how to organize a ‘safe combination lock contest’. Giving every attendee a different lock and having them all open it at the same time sounds a little unfair. As no two locks are alike, it will be a matter of chance who has got the lock that marks easiest. On the other hand, having one or two combo locks available for people to try upon will cause people to have to wait a long time before they can compete. And once someone successfully opened the lock, he could (in theory!) tell a friend and have him open it in ‘an amazing time’. Or you can change the combination of the lock after a successful opening, but that will also cause it to be more or less difficult as the previous combination (as no two combinations are equally difficult on a lock). If people have ideas about how to solve this in a fair matter, or have experience in this kind of game, I am very interested to learn from them.

Of course there will be a classical Dutch Open lockpick championship as well as an impression championship.

And then there is the issue with the name for the event. Looking at the event, the following is taking place there: presentations, championships, exchange information on an informal basis, making new friends and contacts (internationally) and getting drunk on ‘free’ beer. The question is what would be a good name for such an event? It is not a requirement, but it would be nice if Toool was part of the new name for this event. So far, people have come up with the following names and acronyms: Toool-Con, Lock-Con, unlock-con, openlock-con, Lock 2008, LockFest, LockLands, Dutch Toool Symposium, Toool’s annual Alter State, Annual Alter State meeting, Alter State Symposium, The Dutch Lock Symposium

KEYHOLE (Knowledge Extends Your Handling Of Locks Europe) or replace Extends with Excites or Expands
‘TOOOL International Networking Gathering’
TOOOLS (The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers Seminars) or sessions or
P.I.C.K. 2008 (Penetrate, Investigate, Communicate, Know)
P.I.C.K 2008 (Prevent Intrusion, Cultivate Knowledge)

If you prefer one of the above, or (even better) think you can come up with something more suitable, we would love to hear from you (in the comments).

There will be a Toool meeting on Wednesday regarding the event, and if all goes well a full scheduled program will be posted on this weblog real soon. Stay tuned …

So … back from Las Vegas and still not fully recovered from it. The heat is overwhelming there, and recovering two jetlags in a couple of weeks is taking it’s toll.

But nevertheless we had an extremely good time and learned to know a lot of people. Besides the people I already knew, the people from ‘Fool’ pleasantly surprised me. Very friendly, very knowledgeable, and most important: they seem to have ‘the drive’. Hopefully they will make it to the Dutch Open in Sneek this year. We are currently very busy planning the Open, and next week’s posting will be a long one informing you about it.

As always my suitcases were loaded to their limit when coming back. Got a lot of tools and gadgets, and a lot new blanks for my collection. But what is more important is that I now got a device to create my own blanks! I took advantage of the low dollar and purchased a ‘keyway king‘. It is a horizontal milling machine that comes with 16 different cutting wheels. The idea is you measure the cuts in an existing key or keyway and then try to reproduce them on an uncut key (a true blank with no grooves in it). It is also an ideal machine to cut grooves in existing blanks as some manufacturers only use a few ‘basic blanks’ and just take away some grooves to make them fit one specific profile.

The device is currently still in the US as it was too heavy to carry with me. And a very good friend is making modifications to this machine that will make it much more easy to use and will ship it when he is ready. Of course I will share the details on how he modified it with you when the device arrives …

Now packed my bags for a few day’s Berlin. At least I will be in the same timezone now ….

There is a time to write, and there is a time to party. And when you are in Vegas you party …

I must say Defcon is not like any other conference I have ever been to. Not necessarily better or worse then other conferences, but different for sure. And if you ask what is different … I leave that to your imagination.

No time to write more, but I do make the promise to follow up and write some serious postings in the weeks to come … Back to the party now ….

I do not like to depend on other peoples images, and try to create my own if I can. The images for my presentation at the ‘Last Hope’ conference were no difference.

On this image (click on it for a high res version) you see a copy of a high security key, made by Dutch phone phreaks around 1995. Because these phreaks could not get the blank key for the target lock, they found a metalworker who ‘simply’ 3-D measured the key and cut a copy out of a solid piece of brass. What is special about this key profile is that the key has got ‘ribs’. These ribs are scanned by the lock, and on one spot there has to be metal, while on an other part there must not be metal. Sort of like checking for 0 or 1. If the expected value is not present, the lock will jam after 90 degrees and ‘eat’ the key. In most cases probing the side channel with a thin paperclip will release the lock again….

Unfortunately, for this photo-shoot I did not have the original key, so I photographed the brass copy next to a similar key (from a different system).

The bottom line I was trying to make with the presentation is that no matter how complex the manufacturer can create a mechanical key, a bad guy with enough time and motivation can create a copy.

I got a busy week ahead, so my next posting will most likely be from Las Vegas (Defcon).

I am writing, but not for blackbag. Currently finishing an article for the NDE magazine (number 4 already!).

One other thing that will be covered in NDE #4 is the Medecoder tool by Jon King. I had the pleasure to experiment with it over the weekend, and so far picked a 5 pin Medeco lock with it twice. It is a nice feeling to set the pins and open the lock, but picking the pins to the normal height takes me some effort. No doubt this will improve over time …

Tomorrow NDE #4 will be released, so I will continue typing …

Han and I had an extremely good time in New York, and it was nice to see the people behind the nicknames and e-mail addresses. We made some new friends….

I am currently on a campsite with the family, being connected to the net over a very thin GPRS line. So I will keep this posting short for now, and continue to play with the medecoder tool Jon was kind enough to trade me.

In the meantime I will share with you a picture shot by Matt Fidler. It shows Marc Tobias in high security handcuffs. What makes the handcuffs high security? They have Medeco locks on them. And no, Marc did not get out of them in 30 seconds (evil grin).

We will see Marc and Toby again in less then two weeks as ‘the last Hope’ was not the last visit of the good old US of A this year. Next stop for Han and me is Defcon in Las Vegas …

Back to picking locks at the campfire for now. I will try real hard to write something worthwhile on Sunday, so fingers crossed …

Wow … that was one impressive talk!

Jon King and Doug Farre just finished their presentation on maintaining a locksport organisation and … the medecoder tool!

Over the last months there has been a lot of speculation on how this medecoder tool worked, and today Jon King released it. Besides explaining how it works in full detail, he also had the guts to pick a six pin medeco lock on stage. It does take a lot of guts to pick a lock on stage, even if you know it inside out. A couple of hundred people watching can make you quite nervous. But he kept his cool and opened the lock.

And I shot some video of it with my photo camera, so not the best of quality, but here it is. Click above the see the youtube video, or click here for the original AVI 83 MB. I am sure you will enjoy ….

The story is Medeco will come out with special ‘ARX’ pins that will prevent this tool to work…..

Now I am heading back to the conference, but not without sharing some of the images I shot from their presentation (10 MB zip).

*Update 26/07: Video of entire presentation is online here (50 minutes!)

In the comments from ‘about me’ , Martin Newton (a UK grandmaster of safe opening tools) is angry with me. Even calling me a ‘person of questionable character’. Something that really hurts coming from a person who’s tool making abilities I admire for a long time. The problem is I can not even blame him for calling me that….

Mr. Newton claims the design of the ‘last hope’ credit card pick is a cheap rip off on a business card designed by another legend in lock opening tools: John Falle. And I do not even want to tell you how I admire Mr. Falle’s tool making skills …

Now, to our defense, we never saw a business card with ‘John Falle’ or ‘Martin Newton’ on it. Babak received a ‘pick business-card’ from a US company called MBA at the Aloa 2007 convention in the US. And I received a similar (yet not really usable) business card from Kevin Mitnick beginning of 2007 too. The minute I heard the Toool.US crowd wanted to make a special ‘last hope’ memorabilia pickset inspired on an ‘MBA design’, I mailed MBA to ask their permission/opinion about it. There were at least three mails on this topic, and reading back my mails I can only say I really tried to do the right thing.

My big mistake on the previous ‘Last Hope pickset’ posting is I did not mention MBA (and/or John Falle & Martin Newton) for the design. And that was wrong.

People who visit this blog more often know I try to give credit where credit is due. And giving credit to Babak and the people who put the drawings in CAD, but forgetting to credit MBA (and/or John Falle) was plain stupid. And I sincerely want to apologize to MBA, Mr. Falle and Mr. Newton for this.

Gonna crawl under a big and heavy rock now …

Update July 16 09:30: Crawled from under the rock and found a reply to my privately mailed apology to Mr. Newton. It seems the matter is resolved now that he knows the full story. His final word were: “Thanks for understanding my point of view, no hard feelings.”. I must say I am very relieved by that!

This year Toool will be presenting two picksets at the Last Hope conference in New York next week. The first pickset is the one you see above. It is a credit card sized set, and the tools can be snapped off. And already guaranteed to become a collectors item.

It is called ‘the last hope’ emergency pickset, and the main idea is to carry it in your wallet. You will most likely use it when you lost your keys, or when you are assisting others who lost their keys.

If you look at the back of the set, you see the edges of the set can be snapped off too, and are actually four separate tensioners. If you snap off all tools, you will end up with and eleven (!) piece pickset. As you can see, there are three basic picks, designed with the novice pickers in mind. For the real pro’s there is three thin and slim hook picks. Very useful for those pesky euro profile cylinders with their zig-zag keyways….

The other Toool pickset is the new and improved ‘double sided picks series’. There will be eight double sided picks in this set. For the moment I will only show you one of the picks, but you can imagine what the other seven are going to look like. Both the credit card pickset as well as the ‘double sided picks’ are made of is the finest steel on the market. Extremely strong and gives the right feedback for the job …

My role in getting these picksets to Hope was modest. Of course there was a lot of input from me on the shape of the picks (and some other stuff). But the main work has been done by Babak Javadi, one of the driving forces behind Toool.us at the moment. Do not underestimate the amount of work and financial investments that go into a project like this. I would also like to thank Babak’s girlfriend Kari for having to put up with Babak investing so much time in this project.

A project that would not have happened without the help of two engineers from MIT who helped with the CAD. Thanks to Sam Duffley and Chris Pentacoff these picks came out the way we wanted them. A lot of work, but the end result is great. I am sure the Hope audience will love them….

* update July 16 on the source of the design.

During a little lockpick party a couple of weeks ago, I met my good friend Dr. Manfred Bölker in Hamburg.

Manfred is one of the people who also invests a lot of time and money in tools, so when ever we meet we always spend quite some time showing each other our latest treasures and tricks.

This time he showed me a tool I only knew from pictures on the internet: a chinese tool to open Ford Tibbe car locks. Now, I already did cover a Ford Tibbe pick made by John Falle (filmed at the 2006 Dutch Open), but this tool is different as it can rotate the discs in the lock individually. What is also different is the price: if you mange to order it straight from China you pay around 20 euro. Buying it from european sites will cost you around 70 euro.

All in all it is a very nice tool, and I am happy Manfred allowed me to shoot some video (Youtube or Quicktime 44 mb) of it for the kind blackbag audience.