How to protect a home against lock bumping |
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To know if your lock is vulnerable, just look at the
key to your front door. Some of the most popular locks by manufacturers
such as Schlage, Master, Yale and Kwikset may be susceptible to
lock bumping. Other potential targets include recently built condos,
apartments and subdivisions or gated communities, where one lock
manufacturer often supplies similar locks for every house in the
community. A thief would have to gain access to only one key to
be able to make a bump key that would open all the locks in the
neighborhood.
Fact or fiction?
How common is this technique? It's hard to say how many of the over
2 million burglaries that occurred in 2006 involved lock bumping.
But there's no denying that with millions of American homes relying
on the pin-tumbler locks that are so vulnerable -- and with how-to
information and tool kits readily available on the Internet -- the
potential for exploitation of this weakness is huge.
"It's been spreading in Europe ever since it came out on German television in 2004," says Wels. "It became popular for burglars in Germany."
Still, says Yaron Erez, a security expert with Manhattan-based Vertex Security, the danger presented by key bumping may be overblown. The unpleasant truth, he says, is that almost all locks can be picked. Security personnel think in terms of the time and noise it takes to compromise a lock -- no matter how good the lock, it's a matter of when, not if.
"If somebody knows how to bump a lock, most likely he knows how to pick a lock as well," says Erez. "Bumping is a little faster and easier than other forms of lock picking, but that's all."
| Security experts note that the locks on a home are only one aspect of protecting a home. These three components are key to the security of your home. |
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Anti-pick locks
There are locks available that are resistant to all kinds of picking,
including bumping. High-end locks by manufacturers such as Medeco,
Schlage Primus, Assa and Mul-T-Lock are alternatives to the mass-produced,
widely available locks that can easily fall prey to bumping. These
premium locks incorporate more complex, multilayered locking mechanisms
and patented designs that allow manufacturers to control the number
of blank keys that are produced.
Electronic locks, combination locks, magnetic locks and rotating-disk locks are other choices that are immune to lock bumping. Cylinder protectors, devices that cover the front of the lock to prevent tampering, are also an option.
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