Hacker News Reader

Comment by fit2rule | Hacker News Reader

Seems to me pretty much any lock can have itself picked. Isn't that the point though? If these are TSA-approved locks, I'm pretty glad they're in-secure, because it'll teach fine lessons about security at a very personal level when its breached. Perfect place to put a security lesson.

View on HN

Just travel with a firearm. You are by law required to have a lock that only you have access to and a hardcase around the gun, so you can travel with cases made out of metal with hefty locks that only you can open and if TSA needs to get into them they have to get you, they can't just pry them open.

And the fire arm doesn't have to be loaded and IIRC it can even be a flare gun, if you don't want to own actual firearm.

This is reportedly also an excellent way to make sure your baggage is not lost...

Flare guns in your checked luggage is actually a really good thing to do even if you arent concerned about it- I have a friend who works at an airport and he says that protocol dictates they have to flag and keep special track of anything gunlike- and flare guns don't need any sort of licence to carry. It keeps your bags secure and makes sure your luggage gets where it is supposed to go.

Years ago I read the story of a professional photographer that used that trick to carry his -very expensive- equipment without fear that the airline would loose it.

Aha, not the original text I read, but same idea: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/09/expensive_cam...

I was under the impression that airlines/TSA can't anyway mark your luggage even if it contains firearms. Some airlines give you a tag, but you are suppose to put that inside your luggage, but I might be wrong about this or my info might be very old. I'm basing most of my stuff on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfqtYfaILHw

Any lock with this red logo can be unlocked with that set of keys: http://www.cargogear.com/imagelibrary/images/stclockpackb.jp...

This includes for instance pretty much any lock included with or built into luggage from Samsonite etc.

In fact, you can do it with just a ballpoint pen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpIJVWXsBBI

While true, this totally misses the point. Also, not all luggage uses zippers (esp. not super thin, cheap ones): https://www.thepurplestore.com/cgi-bin/product_detail.cgi?ps...

I can't say much about other countries, but I do know they're common in the UK. You often see them on combination locks, so that the TSA (or similar) don't need to know the code to open the lock.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com