Utah SAINT

This is a little off topic. I know it’s hard to believe that writing and building a cult following aren’t my only interests… Gasp, shock , horror! Now, calm down my loyal followers, everything will be alright. It’s just that I thought this might be of some worth, especially for those of you who are securing something valuable with a padlock. Say, your wallet in a locker, your expensive boat, even your Netflix password in your hope chest. I’m not saying I have a hope chest mind you, and if I did, it wouldn’t have to be big. My hopes seem to be diminishing as time goes by. My biggest hope now is for a Café Rio pork salad for lunch. Mmmm. I don’t think it would keep very long in a chest. I tried keeping one in my car for emergencies. Talk about the quickest way to remove that new car smell!

Okay, back on topic. I got home from a Utah SAINT conference last week. Note: the word SAINT is misleading. I’d say most everyone that room would not come remotely close to sainthood, myself excluded. Hence the reason I’m trying to start a cult, or a readership base. I dunno, I’ll go with whatever comes first. SAINT stands for Security and Incident Network Team, or something like that. Basically it’s a group of security geeks from around Utah. We get together once a year, and talk about IT security. We usually do hacking challenges, learn about new tools, techniques, etc.. This year they focused a little more on physical security. Locks, windows, doors, etc. Stuff I’m already somewhat familiar with.

Anyway, in the conference they demonstrated how easy it is to pick locks. I’ve done some of this on very cheap old locks, but this was an eye opener. You know all those combination pad locks you see on gym lockers? Stop laughing! Yes, I have seen the inside of a gym! Can we move on now? Thank you. As I was saying, it’s actually easier to open those through nefarious means then to actually dial in the combo. What about your $30 lock? Not much different. If you’re interested in how it’s done, just look up padlock shims on the internet. My word of advice, you’re going to have to get into the $80-$100 pad locks. That is, if you actually want to secure something. Same thing goes for you house locks, except those run about $200-$300. Of course, shelling out $300 for a decent house lock makes little sense if you have a window right next to the lock that can easily be smashed. Nor is it wise to buy a $100 pad lock to secure a $50 bike. However, $80 to secure you wallet (i.e. identity) in a locker, or your $5,000 dirt bike, is well worth the money. Sadly, security usually only improves after something bad happens.