Lock Bumping! OMG! Should I panic? The news says I should.... Ack!
Lock Bumping / Bump Keys:A few of the flaws and realities in the rather hysterical information being disseminated by the news media...
I'm seeing a flood of news reports on the rather old and worn practice of "lock bumping" and "bump keys." The problem I have with the news reports is the tinge of hysteria attached, and the obvious (to us) ploy to coerce the public into buying more and more expensive locks "for their own security". It's those endless locksmith quotes such as "They may be expensive, but at what cost peace of mind or a good nights sleep?" that grate so badly. Sure, I'm happy to take your money for a service well performed, or a product sold, but I'm damned if I'm going to try to talk you into something you technically don't need, and claim that it's the only way you'll truly be safe so that I can have a bigger paycheck. Based on a rigorous adherence to ethics, I can sleep at night, I'd like to keep it that way. I'll explain later in the post...
Bumping has been around forever. The blanks have been available forever. The information on "how to" has been around forever. It's not new. The concept of bumping is a well established principle of the law of physics. It's an age old technique. Locksmiths and criminals have used it forever. It's NOT new. Criminals have always had access to this information. Sure, the dissemination of it is definitely speedier with the Internet, but folks, the Internet has been around for many, many decades now as well. The main problem today isn't the availability of the information, it's the news media screaming from the rafters, making it HIGHLY attractive, and endlessly fascinating, to bored teens with nothing better to do, or to current or potential criminals who normally would've just broken a window.
Yes, "Bumping" is real.
Yes it's a real threat, particularly with the media making it the "must have" skill of the year.
Yes, you should have the best quality locks within your budget for your home, and make SURE they're keyed and pinned correctly.
Yes, you should be proactive about it and consult with a locksmith on how to best secure your home.
No, you shouldn't panic.
No, you don't need the most expensive locks on the market.
No, high security / proprietary keyway locks aren't the only locks capable of protecting you to a reasonable degree.
No, you shouldn't have to sell a child or take out a second mortgage to secure your home.
Here are a few random quotes from news reports and blog posts about bumping that I'd like to respond to... If only to point out a few of the flaws in the rather hysterical information being disseminated by the news media.... Just to help you with your own "peace of mind"... :)
"...It seems that if you have a cheaper lock set on your door like Kwikset..."
First off, most ANY older regular residential / commercial grade lock is vulnerable to bumping, Schlage (easiest for us anyway, tho' they'd argue the point), Baldwin, Kwikset, etc. Kwikset locks are minutely harder to bump than Schlage when pinned properly with mushroom tumblers. Not impossible, or even really a lot harder, but slightly higher on the difficulty scale. Not only that, but in our 20 year plus experience, and in our own opinion, our personal opinion is that *Kwikset brand are far superior locks as far as the internal workings, the type of metal used, their security capabilities, their hardiness, and most particularly, their life span. Within the lock bumping/lock picking community (and this community is worldwide, from being a national "sport" in the Netherlands, to hobby groups in the States, to endless criminally tinged groups and gatherings), Schlage and Kwikset and all the other brands of residential and most commercial locks (and this is important!), pinned in the "normal" factory manner, are considered "child's play." Schlage costs more than Kwikset, but are just as easy to pick or bump. The old adage of "just because it costs more, doesn't mean it's better" is never more true than in locks. :)
The above ease in bumping does NOT apply to Schlage Primus, or Medeco, or other high end, very expensive proprietary keyway type locks. ***UPDATE: This is no longer the case, as of Defcon 2007. Medeco has been easily, and successfully bumped. See the video here on our blog: Medeco Biaxial bumped. Medeco has now changed their online verbiage to the more honest "bump resistant" from the hyperbolic "bump proof!" These locks ARE extremely provocative to criminals however. If someone "casing" a neighborhood sees Medeco, they're often going to automatically decide there must be something extra good in there, and that house may become a target where it otherwise wouldn't have been. Bumping not needed so long as you have a window. :) There are, in addition, other issues to consider in these proprietary keyways that you should be aware of. They are noted in detail below.
Some locksmiths will swear by Schlage or others over Kwikset or others, others will swear that only a high end system will protect you. For regular residential grade, it's usually personal preference, and experience with the various flaws and foibles of any given brand that leads to most recommendations. For the high end, expensive locks, it's also personal preference, however, it should be obvious why a very small subset of locksmiths push only the higher priced locks vs the less expensive locks, without offering alternative options, and regardless of the end quality. :)
Most ANY lock can be bumped or otherwise compromised. Even some of the high end, high security locks. As mentioned above, it is a national sport in the Netherlands, and an obsession here, and those folks, as well as locksmiths, and criminals, work non-stop to constantly challenge themselves and others to get past the integrity of any lock. You may find it odd, but the vast majority of the sport groups do it to increase customer security, not to provide ways for criminals to get in. They challenge the lock manufacturers to create better locks by showing how easy it is to get into the existing locks. As Martha Stewart says, "It's a GOOD thing."
That being said, ANY lock can be made safer, and far less vulnerable to bumping at a far lower cost than replacing all your hardware. Any old school locksmith worth his or her salt knows how to pin a lock using special pins and/or configurations of pins that make bumping harder than worth it for the average crook and crack head that tries to get into your house. In our humble opinion, this should be done for no more than the cost of a regular rekey - It's the same basic process and principle, with a few extra or different pins - Shouldn't really be more expensive - But then again, that's just the way we do business. :)
Another excellent alternative we often suggest for customers concerned about break-in's while at home, is to install keyless deadbolts. These are extra deadbolts installed in your exterior doors that have thumb turns on the inside, and no key access outside. Once these deadbolts are locked, a bumper would be locked out, having no actual keyway to bump.
Nothing says criminal activity more than a doofus at your door with a rubber headed mallet whacking away again and again at your door lock, cursing the whole time. :) If a crook can't bump his way into your home within a few tries, they will abandon the effort, 99% of the time, if only because a) it's obvious what they're doing, b) it's loud, c) it's not easily disguise-able, and more important d) because there's always another home, further down the street that wasn't proactive, and didn't rekey their locks with the right pins or combination of pins.
"...very easy for a thief to cut some groves into ANY key in a certain way..."
Nope... It has to be the specific key for the specific lock, cut a specific way. Just so you know. :)
"...within 10 seconds the thief is in your home..."
On TV anyway, using demonstration locks, usually only partially pinned. :) This is VERY important: 8 out of 10 locks used for demonstration purposes in TV News reports, and even in a huge majority of the online "How To" videos, are
Proprietary Keyways
For your own information, when you buy into many of the proprietary keyways such as the various ones mentioned on various news reports, the locksmith who sells it to you is generally always and ever the ONLY locksmith who owns that particular series of cuts, and machines that make up that proprietary keyway. They are the only one who can create keys or rekey your locks. You can call only him for a lockout, for a rekey, for a duplicate key, etc. They own the individual proprietary keyway, and it can not be resold to another locksmith. This sounds nice and secure and exactly what you want right up until the locksmith you used retires or goes out of business, is on vacation, or just isn't available when you're locked out. And you can't call Joe's Random Locksmith down the street because he doesn't have a) any rights to that proprietary keyway, b) no machines to cut them, c) no blanks to that keyway, and d) no signature cards to allow you access because he has no rights to it. It also works at odds to your purposes if the person who set up the system is say, a real estate agent who has now left the company... No one else within the company who is not also on the signature cards with full rights can get any of the above services. We run into this all the time.
If this occurs, depending on the proprietary keyway you purchased, you may have to start from scratch with a new locksmith who also distributes his own keyway (a different keyway) within the proprietary system you used, or a different manufacturers proprietary keyway, and he will have to come out and rekey or replace everything to his proprietary cuts at a substantial cost, and with the same potential for not being able to access him at need as above.
As an aside to the above, many of the the high security locks mentioned as a cure-all for bumping require a complex and specific signature card system to get duplicates, or to gain access. The person who bought the lock system and signed the card is the only person who can get duplicates or ask for rekeying. That person must be present with the keyways credit card, their ID and matching signature in order for the locksmith to commence work. When first purchasing the system, other people can be added to the signature card, as well as added later, with appropriate ID and signature, but no one under age. If the person requesting access or duplicates has gotten married, divorced, or otherwise changed their name without going on a special trip to the locksmith shop who sold you the system, and redoing their signature cards, they cannot be allowed access or get duplicates.
Finally, while the high security locks mentioned in several TV reports and news articles are excellent locks, extremely pick and drill resistant, very defensible against any form of physical attack, highly secure, and we recommend them for certain commercial applications/properties, EVERY home has a window, or another vulnerable alternate entryway. Period. What purpose does buying into a very expensive, proprietary lock system serve you if any crook can simply break the nearest window and walk right in?
If ever concerned about your home, or a clients home, call your local locksmith and ask about having the cylinders in your home rekeyed to make them less vulnerable to bumping. Ask about mushroom tumblers, or multi-pinning. If they say "sure, we can do that, and while it's not perfect (nothing is), it'll help because...", you've got a good, ethical locksmith on your hands. If they tell you that alternate pinning won't help, and the nearest rapist is right around the corner, and you'd better buy a proprietary system, and the ONLY way to keep from being broken into is by buying into that high security, proprietary keyway system, etc., they're only trying to sell you expensive locks that give them a lifetime of income first and foremost.
We sell high security and proprietary lock systems as well, but we will always walk the property and point out every flaw and alternate entry that a criminal can and will exploit to get into the home before selling the systems. If the customer fully understands that the locks themselves, no matter how secure, or how expensive, will not fully prevent or guarantee no unauthorized access, as well as the strict security provisions limiting when and how they can gain access, rekey, or get duplicates, then we will sell the system.
"...there is no sign of forced entry..."
This is pure fiction in many bumped / forced entries. Many lockSMITHS (the "smith" is an important distinction), as well as forensic locksmiths can easily detect and record obvious and prosecutable evidence of bumping in many cases, tho' not all of course. But just as in lock-picking, bumping evidence is very hard if not impossible to disguise, tho' it does take some expertise to detect. I won't go into detail for obvious reasons, but consider the force being applied, usually multiple times, to gain entry. Criminal bumpers are always trying to find ways around leaving this evidence, as of now, it's not 100% certain due to the essential makeup of the keys, the locks, and the force required to gain entry.
If you have any questions about bumping, home security, or related, please feel free to contact me from any e-mail link on our website.
Cheers!
Kim
*We generally gently discourage our customers from buying residential grade Schlage locks, as we have been finding for years now that Schlage quality has gone downhill. They "used" to be the standard, sort of, they claimed to be in any case, and they still charge as if they are, but the inner workings of any lock will tell the tale. Among the reasons we personally do not recommend Schlage, is because they are mass produced, using brittle pot metal for their inner workings, and their "innards" break with alarming regularity. We know, we spend a considerable amount of time replacing Schlage tail pieces and other inner parts. :) The same holds even more true with the far more expensive Baldwin brand. This is OUR personal experience, other locksmiths opinions may vary... :)
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