Hackers conference celebrates one of the oldest tricks in the book: Picking locks

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hackers-conference-celebrates-one-of-the-oldest-tricks-in-the-book-picking-locks/2014/07/25/c6ef22be-133d-11e4-98ee-daea85133bc9_story.html

By Anna Hiatt
The Washington Post
July 25, 2014

NEW YORK -- Babak Javadi is discussing his obsession with lock picking — 
how successfully pressing each pin into place and feeling the lock 
cylinder release is “so pleasant,” how quickly he fell in love with this 
hobby - when one of his buddies walks up and interrupts.

“Do you have the cash register key?” the friend says.

Javadi, 29, makes a quick sweep of his pockets, pauses, exasperated, and 
says, “You have to pick it. . . . It’s really easy!”

Tucked in the corner of a massive, truly decrepit room in the Hotel 
Pennsylvania filled with folding tables surrounded by hackers in black 
shirts is the Lockpick Village at Hope X, one of the world’s largest 
hacker conferences. Lock picking may seem an odd addition to the 
conference, which celebrates cryptology and sophisticated encryption, but 
Javadi insists it fits perfectly: Lock picking is physical hacking.

“You have a system that says you can only get in with the right key, the 
right password, and you want to find another way,” he says. “It’s 
effectively a complex, finely made mechanical puzzle that you’re finding 
other ways to get around.”

[...]

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