Soda Can Technique for Opening Tubular Locks

[Macavity]

my canadian ignorance also made me think the same thing when i first read that sentance, wow thats one heavy mobile computer...
would the brittish still weigh somehting like laptops in stones?
anyway, im glad im not the only one that trips up on u.k. to u.s. conversions...

[Mad Mick]

anyway, im glad im not the only one that trips up on u.k. to u.s. conversions...

"A pint of your best ale please Landlord."
"There you go Sir."
"Argh, that's not a pint! A 'proper' pint is worth 1.2 of yours....cheapskate! "

[Surfer]

There's a video out from the Dutch guy who speaks at all the lockpicking/hacking conferences that demonstrates this trick with Kensington laptop locks (the same time we use at work, though I have yet to try it myself). I was pretty amused when I saw it, since its so easy. I don't have a link, but you can just google for it or ask around.

[licehunter2]

A few days ago I posted a piccie of my Kengsington (sp?) cable lock that I opened (and wrecked it by turning too far) with a pencap.

Funny thing is at work they gave us these locks to replace our old combination ones when some manager with a security-related performance objective "discovered" that they weren't safe. That was two years after we all were able to open any combination lock casually while chatting to colleagues, and long after the "disappearing secured laptop" and "spontaneously changed combination" practical jokes had worn out.

Of course, we didn't really give a toss about the fact that the lock was so insecure because we knew anyway that if you wanted to steal the laptop, you could simply detach the security cable from it by gently twisting it at the point of attachment. This technique does not require any great amount of strength and in 99% of cases does not leave any detectable marks on the laptop, which could be easily sold after resetting the BIOS passwords and clearing the hard drive (or not, depending on whether you were interested on the info or not).

We actually recovered a laptop once, which had been stolen in Dubai, when a guy showed up at a small computer shop in Cairo asking the owner if he could disable the power up password. As it happened, the owner's cousin worked for us and they apparently had spoken about the problem of laptop thief. Store owner got suspicious and phoned cousin and police, who mounted a sting operation and snatched the fence when he came back to retrieve the computer.

At any rate, I can only think of two or three cases were a security cable was manipulated to get the laptop. The vast majority of all the other incidents (ocurring at a rate of about 400/year) were due to negligence on the part of employees such as leaving the computer behind on the luggage rack on suburban trains or after getting drunk senseless at the pub, that kind of thing.

The bottomline is, as I'm sure you already know, that security cables are there only to deter the most casual of thieves, so it is a bit of a moot point whether the locks on them are more or less secure.

I am not saying cable locks shouldn't be used, at least they show you are minimally concerned about security, what I am saying is they shouldn't be relied upon. Keep your laptop in a secure (for your definition of secure) room or in your person when not using it, and always concealed, especially in the latter case. Carry it in a sports bag, backpack or similar, never be seen in a public place with a laptop bag.

OK, so I strayed a bit off-topic. Apologies.

[Mad Mick]

Actually, that's pretty valid advice. A mate of mine was on the London underground a couple of years ago, and was carrying a black nylon document folder which looked very similar to a laptop case (he was going for an interview, so had his qualifications, CV (resume), references, business proposals etc. in there...it was quite fat). He got a funny feeling and noticed two guys keeping tabs on him and his folder. Had it been someone less aware/smaller in size, they would have probably been jumped and robbed, but since he's about 6'4" and had the balls to smile at them both in turn, and make it known he'd pinged them, they thought better of it.

[digital_blue]

Had it been someone less aware/smaller in size, they would have probably been jumped and robbed, but since he's about 6'4" and had the balls to smile at them both in turn, and make it known he'd pinged them, they thought better of it.

Maybe they just thought he looked cute in that suit.

db