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Just one more week till the Dutch Open in Sneek is going to happen.
An exiting time. And a very busy one. Today I collected 50% of the
locks we will use for the games. Since a lot of sportpickers always
want to know what they are up against here is some info:

For the regular games we bought a bunch of ISEO 8209 locks. A nice and
decent lock. Time will tell how pickable they are, but I expect each Ssdev and Toool
member to at least open a few of them.

For the finals and semi-finals we have bought ‘federal locks’. These
locks are much tougher to pick. Six pins and some of them serrated. Only
the best four lockpickers of the Dutch Open will face these locks.

 

 
To also give the less talented (or lucky?) pickers a chance to win a
nice price, one of the federal ‘cut away’ locks will find a new owner by
a small lottery (among with a some other nice prices!). So please join
the games! You can keep one of the official locks used in the games too.

For the real diehards close up images of the keyways are available here.
Close observers will see both keyways look similar. The Federal keyway
is a little more narrrow. Iseo keys do not fit Federal, but Federals does fit Iseo.

More on the Dutch Open 2006 coming up this weekend. You can still
register till Monday (if you are an Ssdev or Toool member).

Always wanted to know the exact spacing en depths of one of the
following locks? : Arrow, Corbin, Dexter, Emhart, Falcon, Ilco,
Kaba, Kwikset, Lockwood, Medeco, Medeco Biaxial, Medeco Keymark,
Russwin, Sargent, Schlage, Segal, System 70, Weiser, Weslock or Yale

Too bad. The site hosting this wealth of information decided to remove it.

 

Fortunately there is http://www.archive.org and the ‘wayback machine’. There is no escape …
Just try: http://web.archive.org/web/20050215102400/http://dlaco.com/spacing/spacing.htm

Or download a .PDF file with the exact spacings here.

No need to identify what keys are used by the SDU voting computer anymore …

Today was a bizarre day. We knew the minister would come with a
statement about voting computers, but had no idea about the
content. And the news he brought came as a shock. A shock to us and a
shock to the public. He announced all SDU newvote voting computers are
banned for elections as of now! The reason for this is that the
screens of these devices leak radio signals, strong enough so anybody
with a simple receiver and readily available tools can reconstruct
what parties people vote on. And this signal is strong enough to be
received tens of meters away!

We already showed that the other voting computers (Nedap) also
leaks radio signals, and we could identify from that if someone voted
for the Christen Democrates or some other party. But with SDU newvote
things seem even worse. The end result is that the minister banned the
SDU Voting computers and in Amsterdam where I live we will now vote
with our trusworthy paper and pencil. This is an unbelievable success and
dominated the Dutch news today. All news programs had it as their
first item, and the complete country is in shock. And so am I a little…

Some of todays news videos can be found here, here and here.

 

Wow … In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is a nice article on
locksport in the US. I am glad to see the locksport groups in the US
know how to talk with the media and get their point across without being
portrayed as criminals. Read the full article here: Page 1 and Page 2.

Police claim to have made a breakthrough in the mysterious car burglaries
case in Stadskanaal. As you might remember a wide range of different
car brands and models where opened without a trace and goods were
taken from the cars. And the police had no idea what tool or technique
was used by these crooks.

The stadskanaal police today claims to have found the answer. A twenty
year old drug addicted male was arrested. Police believe he is the
brain behind this intriguing case. The answer to the question how he
did it is a little ehrm … sobering. His modus operandi was simple:
He got on his bicycle and drove around town trying to find cars that
accidentally were left open and let statistics do the rest. It is a
fact not all cars are closed, and he based his ‘attack’ on nothing
more then just trying to see if a car was left open. That is it…

Or is it? Three different sources have recently shown me a picture of a
mysterious tool. Police is trying to find out what type of tool it is
and who makes it. It seems to have something to do with car openings…
Unfortunately I can not show you the pictures since all sources do not
want me to publish it. Sorry about that :(   *update10 Nov. : mystery solved!

Update: Dutch SBS6 TV had an item about this (click here WMV 17 Mb)

Currently I took the time to relax a little and read some books. These
books are all in Dutch, except for one I recently bought at the German
lockpick championships. It is a German book by Manfred Göth named
‘Werkzeugspur’ ISBN 3-00-004285-7 (rough translation: ’tool traces’).

Manfred is the only non government independent forensic specialist in
Germany and he is well respected for that. I had the pleasure of
meeting him once and he is really a knowledgeable person. This also
shows in his book. In it are many close up images of locks and pins.
Traces almost not visible with the naked eye all of a sudden become
crystal clear if he uses special electron microscopes to zoom in on
the subjects. The book is filled with images like the one below.

(electron microscope image of a pin with unusual marks on it)

Manfred made it clear that almost any non-destructive opening can be
identified by people with the right forensic knowledge and tools. He
is also capable of identifying if a lock was bumped open or not and
does this on a regular basis for insurance companies and their clients.

It could be coincidence or not, but over the last few weeks three
independent people asked me to look at their legal case against their
insurance company. One car theft where the insurance company claims
the car is so well protected it is impossible to steal. Just googling
for the brand and model I found at least 3 ways to steal that car…sigh.
One case was a burglary where probably a bump key was used and the
insurance company does not want to pay and one bizarre case where an
electronic locking system was bypassed one way or the other.

More info on Mr. Göth’s company and book on http://www.goeth.de/

“Hello my name is Peter, I am 9 year old and I have bumped open allllll
these locks. And now I am going to bump open this Mul-T-Lock(*), really
high security, bypass this combination lock and rake this Yale lock, 6 pins.”

The video takes less then three minutes and is adorable and entertaining.
To be honest I do not know how genuine this video is. It looks right, but I
have never seen a Mul-T-Lock opened with the ‘pull one click back method’.
I don’t think it is a hoax, but you can not be too careful these days.

Martin, Peter’s dad, mailed me: Peter started picking and bumping after
watching bumping revisited, he has been doing it for a year now. I have
supply him with his bump keys and he brought his pick set. He can open
locks better than me sometimes a natural,his first lock was a yale
front door lock and his latest is the 7 pin multi t lock.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=5145437642005440092&q=lock+picking

(*) update 25/10: As you can read in the comments I was right, it was not a Mul-T-lock.
However, footage is available where little Peter bumps open and bypasses a 7X7 Mul-T-Lock:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-8278930360889092448&pr=goog-sl

 

I previously mentioned the lousy keys that were used on our Dutch
Nedap voting computers. We found out the keys could be ordered on
various places on the internet for just about one euro each, and all
keys to operate the Nedap ES3B voting computers are the same.

Besides the Nedap company there is a second player on the Dutch voting
computer market: SDU. Their voting computers are called ‘newvote’ and
are more modern in comparison to the Nedap antiques. Little is known
about these devices except they are running an embedded windows
version (XP? NT?) and have a built-in wireless modem. Needless to say
this computer does not give us a warm fuzzy feeling. Their slick
advertisement video does not change this, on the contrary….

As far as we know the SDU newvote is fitted with three locks.

One of our informants handed us a photo of the keys to these locks.
Unfortunately the pictures you see below are not the best quality, but
we will have to live with that. And it is all we got to identify them
and find the manufacturer. Click on the images for a higher resolution.

 

 

Key number one is an ‘important’ one. This ’tubular key’ is used
by the head of the voting office and is labeled ‘control key’
(beheerssleutel). This key is important since it is necessary to start
the device. If you do not have this key the voting computer simply
does not work. It strongly reminds me of a lock one could open with
just a roll of toilet paper. It would not surprise me if the SDU
newvote lock could be opened just as easily. Unfortunately we will have
to wait till November 22 to find out (election day).

Key number two is needed to operate the machine. This key is
necessary to clear the machine after the vote is cast and is labeled
‘operator key’ (bedieningssleutel). The key is identified as a wafer
lock key for a four lever lock. Possible combination is ‘3-3-4-0’. It
is my impression this key operates a cheap and very simple lock that
could be bypassed with just a paperclip.

Key number three is already identified. This key is manufactured by a
company called EMKA, and probably the code of the key is ‘EK 333’.
These EMKA locks are well known in the computer server area and an
‘EK 333’ key is on its way to our office.

  
I would like to find out who manufactures the two unknown locks. Mind
you, they are electronic switch locks and probably both come from
the same manufacturer. On the locks themselves a three digit
number/code is stamped (unfortunately not well readable. see images below)

           

   
Of course there is a reward for the right answer… one big apple pie (old hack-tic tradition) …

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.

 

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.