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Comment by lucb1e | Hacker News Reader

> Most house locks are trivial to pick in about 30 seconds

How many training seconds are required to be able to manage an average of 30 seconds? Or do you mean destructive? If yes, is it loud?

Maybe the American locks are different (doubt it) but as a casual lockpicker I can say it's not as trivial as you make it sound. Or if you're talking about destructive methods rather than picking, that's still better than an electronic lock where you potentially never know if someone managed to bypass it. It might also be done or at least prepared remotely (no need to spend at least a few minutes single pin picking the door, or making noise destroying it).

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The average lock around here can be trivially bumped and slightly-less-trivially picked. I wouldn't say your front door lock is the first lock you should try to pick, but it's definitely the second.

Large apartment buildings of the size this article is about sometimes use better locks. I had a Medeco on one apartment I rented many years ago, but that's the best I've ever seen. Right now, I have a Schlage lock that can be picked in seconds. It's not hard. Americans do not buy elaborate locks. $10 is out of our price range, it seems.

On this topic, do you have any particular recommendations for locks, or recommendations from a lock-picking society?

I'm not a specialist, but from previous discussions I remember that the Abloy locks are considered difficult to pick: https://www.abloy.com/en/abloy/abloycom/products/abloy-key-s...

Abloy. They aren't spring-loaded and can fit something like 16 disks instead of 5 pins. Evva and Mul-T-Locks are fine as well.

But even something like a dimple lock will frustrate someone expecting a regular lock.

Your deadbolt should also require multiple turns of the key to disengage completely.

See lock bumping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_bumping

"Lock bumping takes only an instant to open the lock. The lock is not visibly damaged, although the force of the bump can leave an indentation on the front of the cylinder."

That's a problem with the lock. Try doing that with a disc tumbler lock.

Around here pin-tumbler locks haven't been used for house/apartment doors in several decades. Even the "classic" Abloy disk-detainer lock introduced in 1907 [1] is practically bump-proof, and more modern versions such as the Exec, never mind the Protec2 [2], are nigh impossible to pick without considerable skill, special-purpose tools and state-of-the-art knowledge.

> The Protec's design enables it to resist a variety of common attacks, particularly lockpicking. There are no confirmed non-destructive attacks against Protec cylinders in the public domain.[2]

See the whole Abloy family at [3].

[1] http://www.lockwiki.com/index.php/Abloy_Classic

[2] http://www.lockwiki.com/index.php/Abloy_Protec

[3] https://securitysnobs.com/item_images/4323f39aa0570924212c3c...

>How many training seconds are required to be able to manage an average of 30 seconds?

An afternoon of practice starting with some shitty master locks and then moving up to some doorknobs you bought at a home improvement store.

locks that are susceptible to bump locking appear to be trivial to unlock

Lots of poorly installed protecs around here, sure you probably can’t pick one but you can certainly shim them open in seconds.

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