Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/07/gun-safe-opened-with-orange-ju.html
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Plastic strips will open all kinds of locks but it is amazing that anyone could sell a product like this without recognising such a fundamental design error.
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If I have learned anything from the locking picking lawyer it’s that I need to change the way I think about safes. A car lock I think about like this; lock the doors so a random person can’t just get into the car but I know if someone wants to break in to steal something from within a brick is all it takes. If a professional wants to steal the car the locks are useless. The locks are only a deterrent to someone only willing to steal from an unlocked car. And that works most of the time. Seems that safes are the same. Good for your common person stumbling upon it but not for any serious protection.
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I mean, that’s all security. It’s all about creating a hill of risk and inconvenience to climb. The higher the hill, the more people you eliminate. The weighting is exponentially weighted to the bottom, so the simplest lock deters 99% of would-be thieves. For a determined thief, bricks, cordless angle grinders, and occasional social engineering defeat all security, pretty much.
Someone smarter than me said that locks are not security- they are a social contract. They are a way of stating how serious you are about the privacy of this item, and/or how good your insurance is.
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Safes are (supposed to be) boxes designed to keep people out. Think of a safe as a security management component; they are secure boxes designed to keep determined people out. The higher a rating the safe has, the more determined a person it’s designed to keep out.
A properly installed TRTL-60x6 safe will slow down the most sophisticated burglar, and defeat any attempts to open it within a reasonable amount of time by any but the top echelon of safecrackers. You pay through the nose for that level of physical security, though.
I never leave valuables in my car because it’s a sheet metal and glass box that can be easily opened with a little brute force and ignorance. I leave it unlocked in our secured underground parking so I don’t have to deal with broken glass. If I knew I was going to store valuables in it, I’d buy a small safe and bolt it into the trunk.
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Locks are to keep honest people honest, no more, no less. If someone really wants in, they are coming in.
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I’m the same way diving into physical security testing videos. I fount out our office doors can be opened with a screw driver or knife or other thin instrument.
So many things like elevators or security boxes open with easy to find master keys, etc. Even good safes can be defeated with prybars.
I’m in right now!
Wait…
…how do I get out…?
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For a lot of gun safes, the threat model is less “determined attacker” than “your kid looking for a fun toy”, so they don’t have to be really secure.
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Also- haven’t seen one where he opens the lock before the intro, but the “Hyper Tough” $10 Walmart deadbolt took him longer to open the package than the lock.
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Yep- if anything, it’s a token gesture at security at best. at worst, it actively hinders the legit person when they need the firearm right f&%^king NOW to deal with an intruder or some other threat to life.
No home intruder is going to give you the time to run to the kitchen and get a bottle of orange juice so you can open your gun safe.
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There are alternatives. I am looking at an aluminum/plastic pill blister package in front of me that would do the trick.
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Disappointed. Was expecting something involving orange juice and short-circuits.
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But a simple lip on the door rather than access to the recess would prevent a child from sticking something in and releasing the lock by accident. And children do like sticking things where they shouldn’t (speaking as a child who was discovered sticking pins into an electrical socket).
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To be fair, isn’t there a value in keeping a gun far less accessible to children?
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Yes, but as others have stated:
Firearms are tools, nothing more, nothing less. And as such, tools need to be respected. I’ve been injured far worse with random hand and power tools than any firearm. (like stabbing myself with an old phillips screwdriver- does that mean we need to ban screwdrivers? How about a drill press or other power tools? I’ve seen what happens with someone got their clothing caught in a running lathe and was pulled in- it was gory and vomit-inducing.)
It’s not the hill I’m prepared to die on, but the rhetoric and 'WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!1111111111111111111111ONEONEONEONEONE" gets a little old after a couple years.
That’s a fair point. You can’t go too long in this country without reading a story about how a couple of kids left unsupervised got ahold of their dad’s drill press or screwdriver and a kid ended up dead.
This is an odd strawman to put out there, as it does not appear anyone is coming close to engaging in that kind of argument.
Instead, what I’m pointing out is that your statement that this kind of gun safe is a “token” security measure at best seems to be discounting entirely the value in keeping a firearm out of a kid’s hands. That’s a pretty significant value in a lot, if not most, situations where a gun safe is appropriate.
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Point taken. The ‘token’ means in this context that it’s better than nothing. Although given Homak’s normal product lines (mid-high end tool chests and service carts), One would have expected MUCH better from them.
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The door did have a lip. That’s why he used flexible plastic to go around that lip. otherwise he could have shoved his lock pick or any other thin, straight tool.
