According to an article on the front page of the biggest newspaper in the Netherlands, some Dutch bicycle locks are not worth a dime.

And they are right. There is a trick to open some of these locks in seconds, causing no damage to the lock. In the article, Dutch police advises to always use two locks to secure your bike (and better lock your bike to solid objects too).

Yesterday I learned manufacturers of these locks were going to warn the public using nation wide advertisement in newspapers. Curiously I looked in the newspaper today, and had to look twice. But I found the add on page 26 (of the digital telegraaf edition). I expected the add to say something like: Warning, possible product failure. Instead it said: A new phase in security. First thing the add does is … advertise the new AXA Defender RL as a secure lock. Second it mentions ‘the police discovering a new method of manipulating locks’. This ‘by the police discovered method’ happens to work on ‘some older models SL7, SL9 and 583’. Needless to say police did not discover this method. If they did it would (still) be a big secret. Instead of the police, the guild of bicycle thiefs discovered it. And police found out about it that way. I am real curious if other brands are affected by this too.

The AXA website covers the problem the same way as the ‘ad’ in the newspaper. Instead of making a serious effort to warn their customers they just mention on the side of the page: AXA advertisment, a new phase in security. Not something a concerned customer will click on straight away.

I am curious were this is heading to, as this story shows great resemblance to problems Kryptonite had in the US. Someone found out these locks could be opened in seconds, without any damage, using just a bic pen. That story started with some denial, but ended with Kryptonite publicly making a lock exchange offer. I am curious if AXA thinks it is going to get away with this, or if they are going to make the same offer to their customers as Kryptnite did….

I have know for at least a week there was a problem with the AXA locks, without knowing the details. My locksmith friends were swamped by kiddo’s asking them for SL7 blanks (really, for a science project at school sir). And when I visited the bicycle shop around the corner they told me quite some people had their bikes stolen….

The bicycle shop gave me two locks from their garbage bin for me to experiment on. It only took me a couple of minutes to figure it out and open them both. And since every bicycle thief in the Netherlands already knows how to open these locks, I do not mind sharing the trick with you (18 MB quicktime movie or youtube). And please do not complain about me teaching malicious people how to open locks. Complain to the manufacturer of the lock that makes locks ‘that are not worth a dime’ ….

Update 08-12: Abus does not only seem to have the same problem as AXA, it looks as if they also share the same marketing people. The head of the ad in the newspapers today says: New generation Abus bike locks. And it does mention some ABUS Protecta 48 and 4600 can be opened using an ‘illegal method’. Who’s next?

It is amazing what can happen in the course of just one weekend. The list of interesting things happened in Sneek is just too long, so I am just going to highlight a few here…

“Lock Pathologist” Peter Field his presentation was very well received.

And in a weekend that is about breaking records, this presentation broke quite a few! Most obvious record: the longest presentation ever at a Dutch Open (almost 5 hours). But also it received the longest and loudest applause ever (at least 5 minutes straight!). A great contrast to another record: that of the one presentation were the audience was completely silent. All in all one of the most interesting presentations at the Dutch Open ever. Thanks again Peter!

Another great class was that of Paul Crouwel on combination lock manipulation.

Paul prepared this class with great precision and besides arranging plenty combination locks, he had some tools and charts made to make manipulation more easy. So I would not be surprised if we will have combination lock championships at the Dutch Open in the near future, as some of the attendees became very enthusiastic about opening combination locks this way. And already Paul is receiving requests from other organisations who are interested in attending his classes.

Of course there was a lot of lockpicking going on in Sneek. I have seen some exotic tools, ranging from home made Abus plus picks, to the famous sputnik to the new mul-t-lock opener and more. But what everybody was there for was the Dutch Open championship. Under strict supervision of referee Ivana Belgers (toool eindhoven), Julian Hardt managed to win the open again (just like in 2003).

Peter Danilov became second, followed by André Matuschek. Too bad Nigel Tolley from the UK became fourth, and Eric Schmiedel of Toool USA became fifth. In total there were 42 people attending the open this year. At least half of them good enough to make it to the finals.

And then there was impressioning:

Manfred won his second impressioning championship title this year. I became second, just like two months ago in Germany.

Manfred opened the lock, setting a new impressioning record of 5 minutes and 19 seconds. It took me just a lousy 28 seconds more: 5 minutes 47. Oliver Diederichsen became third in 6 minutes and 20 seconds. And some background info: there were a total of 22 attendees of which 11 managed to open the lock within the hour. Walter Belgers was last in 58 minutes and 39 seconds (just 1 minute and 21 seconds before the end of the game!). And it was fun to see many people picked up on impressioning and open a lock for the first time this way in Sneek.

The new hostel in Sneek also was a great success. Professionally run by Gea Schmidt and her staff she made everybody feel at home. A small minority was un-happy about the non-smoking policy, but besides that I heard no complaints.

Again, the list of things that happened is too long to fully mention here. Jaakko’s Abus presentation, the interesting things people shared, the lack of time for some scheduled presentations …

So I would like to end here, thanking all that helped make the Dutch Open 2007 a success. The list of people to thank is also too long, as almost all attendees helped out one way or the other. Thank you all, and … see you next year!

Next week we will be picking in the snow…

The ‘Mastermate bouwtechniek dagen’ will be held in Snowworld Zoetermeer this year, and we will be present to teach the audience the noble art of lockpicking. There will be a big table with some qualified Toool instructors and plenty of locks and tools to get you started. So if you live in the Den Haag/Zoetermeer area come visit us Tuesday or Wednesday November 21/22 (from 13:00 to 21:00).

Some of the Toool members will be trying to improve their best scores in the ongoing 2007 competition, or will use the time to practise for the Dutch Open lockpick and impressioning championships in Sneek November 23/24/25….

Whenever we do lock-pick or impressioning championships we always make sure to keep the original keys far out of sight of the participants.

The reason is a two second peek of the key is enough for an expert to ‘read’ it. After that he/she knows the (approximate) key combination and picking or impressioning becomes much more simple.

I even hear rumors surveillance teams try to make photographs of keys visibly worn by suspects to give the NDE operator a head start ….

And in some prisons the guards carry keys in a way the inmates can not see them.

People that are concerned with others ‘reading’ their keys can have a look at a new product called ‘key port’. It is not a cheap solution, but it is effective and sure makes a great Christmas present ….

Last month we heard former FBI agent H. Edward Tickel Jr tell the amazing story how he did some blackbag operations, working from inside a cardboard box.

Well, it now seems not only the FBI was clever enough to come up with this method.

Some blackbag reader attended me to the following story:

Fri Oct 26, 4:29 PM ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – Two men and a woman who used an ordinary cardboard box to break into over 200 Toronto area fast-food joints were caught by lucky timing, police said on Friday.

The trio arrived at their target with an oversized cardboard box, which they propped up against the restaurant’s front door. One person hid in the box and used specialized tools to break into the restaurant, while the others stood guard with a police scanner and two-way radios.

“They were able to, by experience, literally remove the glass from the pane of the door and then set the glass aside,” said Detective Sergeant Reuben Strober of Toronto Police, adding that the burglars managed to disable most alarm systems at the same time.

Even if the alarms were triggered, the suspects got away before police arrived. Over the course of their crime spree, they made off with some C$250,000 ($260,000), police said.

Strobel said the three were finally caught after police responded to an unrelated call in the neighborhood.

They face 355 charges.
—

Curious if these guys had an intel background ….

And it is a good thing they are already used to living/working in small spaces, as with 355 charges it might take them some time before they get out of their small little cell ….

In just a few weeks it will be party time in Sneek.
But we still have a lot of preparations to do….

One of the chalenges we always face is finding decent locks for the games. This year we will be using US style locks for the picking contest.

Schuyler Towne was kind enough to donate these locks and already send us some pictures of the keyways.

For impressioning we are most likely going to use corbin locks, but I unfortunately I can not confirm this yet as we are having some trouble finding 40 equaly bitted locks for a reasonable price.

And currently I am in the US, manning the CryptoPhone booth at the MilCom conference in Miami Florida, so I do not have much time to spend on the open (or this blog). But I did receive some real nice information that I hope to share with you soon ….

As organizers of the Dutch Open we feel the pressure building up. Will everything work out? Can we satisfy the people and offer them something nice? Looking at the presentations we have to offer I think we can ….

Kick off

Friday around 20:30 Paul Crouwel will kick off the Dutch Open with his presentation: High security safe opening

As regular visitors of this blog know, Paul Crouwel is a highly skilled safe technician that opened many high security safes. During this presentation he will try to open at least one high security safe. Before trying to open it he will reveal his plan of attack and then execute it. When the safe is open it is time to party 😉

And there is more Paul Crouwel will do at the Open:

Saturday 15:30-17:00 Paul Crouwel on combination lock manipulation
(second track)

This will be an intimate class with room for only ten attendants. Paul will explain the basics behind safe combination lock manipulation and hand out ten Sargent&greenleaf 6730’s combination locks for some hands on training. At the end of the Dutch Open these locks can be purchased by the students for a very reasonable fee. This presentation will also be held on Sunday after the lockpick championships (around 15:00).

Saturday 10:00-15:00 Peter Field, lock Pathologist (Lunch 12:00-13:00)

Peter Field has an extraordinary way of looking at locks. Like a pathologist, he cuts locks in many thin slices and captures the result with high quality photography. This unique methods of creating a cutaway view is world renowned. His lectures have been attended by locksmiths, security personnel, lock company engineers and Patent Office Examiners from many countries. And now we are proud to welcome him to Sneek.

He will set a Dutch Open record by giving a 4 hour(!) presentation about many of the different elements of high security cylinder lock design. Combining his unique cut-away imagery with illustrations from old patents, he will explain how engineers classify the cylinder elements, modify them, develop new ones, and re-combine them all to invent new products for the constantly evolving security market. You will leave this presentation with an outline and a clear understanding of the design constraints and functions of most of the various elements you may find in any lock cylinder.

Even if you know a lot about cylinders, or you are just starting to expand your knowledge into the field of mechanical locks you will not be disappointed with this presentation. If you had to choose only one class about mechanical cylinders to attend this year, this is the one to choose.

About Peter Field: he started locksmithing in 1960, and in 1978 was asked to join Medeco Security Locks, where he is now Director of Research. He has over 15 US Patents pertaining to high security locks, with several more patents pending.

Impressioning

Saturday 15:30-17:00 Impressioning By Oliver Diederichsen and Barry Wels.
(track one)

Impressioning is the fine art of opening a lock by filing a key from a blank. It is an ancient technique that still works on an amazing number of (high security) locks. Besides an old-skool locksmith skill it is a technique still in use today by intelligence agencies worldwide for their blackbag operational need.

Oliver Diederichsen wrote the leading book about impressioning locks (also available in English now) and teaches impressioning courses all over the world. And he introduced many locksport enthusiasts to this fine art. Amongst them Toool president Barry Wels, who over the last months successfully opened at least fifty different brands of locks trough impressioning. As the blank key is the most important weapon of the impressioning artist, Barry invested a great deal of time in finding the correct blanks for European and US locks. A search that is still going on today.

This hands-on workshop will teach and tell you everything we know about impressioning. From the very basics to open five pin tumbler locks till the more sophisticated fifteen pin dimple locks, and more.

Multiple tracks

The good news about the new location in Sneek is there are three conference rooms. This gives us room to experiment with something new. The other two conference rooms will be available for people to give small presentations. Just claim a slot on the chart (30 or 60 minute slots available) and give your presentation to whoever is interested. It is not necessary to send us an e-mail in advance, but we would appreciate it a lot if you did. Even before announcing this we had the following presentations offered:

Decoding Abus Plus/Granit locks by Jaakko Fagerlund

This presentation covers one of the most humorous lock decoding techniques I have seen in a long time. Jaakko will describe the major design flaw in the Abus plus style disc lock and explain the basics of the exploit and how it can be done out in the field. And briefly talk about the reaction from Abus.

Lever locks by Nigel Tolley

Lever locks were, until recently, found on the majority of domestic doors in the UK, and are still found on most commercial premises. They are available in everything from a one lever privacy lock, right the way up to the 7 lever Chubb 110, and, of course, with even higher lever counts in the locks found on safes world-wide.

Nigel Tolley, a UK locksmith, will be giving us a brief tour through these locks, concentrating on those commonly found on doors rather than safes, and their evolution over the years, as well as touching briefly on methods for overcoming them, plus a look at some of the dedicated tools for the harder ones. Some locks will be available for swap and demonstration.”

‘Back Dialing’ by Mike van der Stelt

Mike will talk about a technique to easily read the combination of a safe lock if you find a way to view the change key hole.

Congratulations if you have read all the way till the end!

More news on the exact schedule and what locks we will use for the championships in the days to come …

Stay Okay youth hostels just opened a new location in Sneek (Friesland). Just 100 meters away from the old one, a completely new hostel was build.

I remember wired wrote about the Dutch Open 2004, saying: “The Sneek Wigledam Youth Hostel appears to be nothing special, just bunk beds and a bar-and-breakfast space of unpainted wood and colorful furniture – something like an Ikea Gulag. But to a lock sports aficionado, this is Wimbledon.”

Well … the part about Wimbledon still stands, but the rest is history.

Gea Schmidt was kind enough to show me the building and let me video the tour for you. See for yourself how nice the new location is: Stay Okay virtual tour (50 MB quicktime or YouTube).

The best part is that we might end up using both locations as the old one is also still functional. We are still planning and puzzling on the schedule and the finer details ….

Reservations for the Dutch Open 2007 can already be made … The e-mail address in at the end of the video …

Tom Janssen outdid himself on a cartoon about the Dutch e-voting soap in Trouw magazine.

Maybe it will inspire some municipalities to actually use the good old Nedap e-voting machines this way …

* ‘verbeterde stemcomputer’ means ‘improved e-voting computer’

If there would be a decathlon for lockpickers, Dr. Manfred Bölker would win it for sure. Besides being one of the most skilled lockpickers on the planet, he also takes great pride in mastering all other opening techniques. But that is what it takes to become ‘master of the universe’.

And last week he showed his brilliance again by winning the 2007 German lock impressioning championships in Koln. Nothing new, as he already won in 2001 and 2004, and scored a third place in 2005 and a fourth place in 2006.

This year he made a key for the Abus C83 lock trough impressioning in a devastating time of 7:15.

And in my first serious attempt to compete in this discipline I became second. It took me 25 minutes and 5 seconds to make a working key for this lock. The reason it took so long is it took me two blanks … on my first blank I went too deep on one position.

Only three out of the eighteen people that attended opened the lock this year. Julian Hardt became third in 46:03.

Below is a picture of the original key (code 8 3 6 2 7) and my impressioned key.

(Yellow paint on blank is a security feature to identify it is an ‘original championships blank’)

A little about the lock:

In previous championships the Abus C83 lock was used. This is one of the most common locks in Germany and all Ssdev members know it inside out.

This ‘inside out’ knowledge was of no use as Abus had other plans this year. The lock was filled with special ‘black pins’ (hardened?). If I understood correctly some of them were even special SKG anti manipulation pins.

And normally the first four housing pins in an Abus are mushrooms and the last one a solid one. But not in this lock. Here the second housing pin was solid while the rest were mushrooms. Not to mention the first pin being a cut eight (normally four or less?).

Abus is a clever company. They sponsor the championships by supplying free locks and blanks, and in return learn from the feedback. I must say I admire Abus for this approach!

In less then two months we will all meet again. During the Dutch Open lockpick championships we will also spend some time on an impressioning workshop and championship. And Dr. Manfred will be there too, trying to win the only trophy missing on his chimney: that of winner of the Dutch Open lockpick games ….

* Update 3/10: Julian mentioned I made a mistake, I mentioned Abus C38 instead of Abus C83. Corrected that now. Thanks Julian!