Why Even The Best Door Locks Aren’t Secure

We take all sorts of action to ensure that our home is secure. We lock our windows at night. We use outdoor lights to highlight areas around our home where potential intruders could hide. We buy the best door locks to put on our doors and keep intruders from breaking in. But what if those door locks are not as protective as we thought they were? What if someone could easily open them up and break into our house while we are out or while we are sleeping?

How Does A Lock Work?

Even though most key locks look different on the outside, they all function the same on the inside which makes picking locks an easy task once you know how to pick one. Inside the locks you will find tumblers which sit vertically to the actual locking mechanism. They each hold pins that are all various heights.

When the lock is locked, the upper and lower pins meet at various heights. However, when the correct key is inserted into the lock, it pushes pins up certain heights (which is why keys have peaks and valleys) in order to create a perfect horizontal line along the space of the inside of the lock that turns and outside of the lock that stays in place. When this happens, the lock can move freely with no pins blocking its ability to turn.

The Old Way To Pick A Lock

Picking a lock used to be a skill that was learned from a lot of practice. A pick and a tension wrench were needed to pick a lock with pins. The tension wrench would be inserted into the keyhole and then the pick would be used to push the pins individually up to their perfect position along the sheath line. The person picking the lock would have to be able to hear the pin go into place, or feel the pin go into place, which took a lot of patience and attention. There are still many people who can do this with even the best door locks, but most people can’t be bothered to sit and take the time required to learn how to do this properly.

Another method is called raking. This is a less precise method of picking a lock, but it can be just as effective. A tension wrench is still inserted into the lock, but instead of carefully pushing each pin up into place, the pick is raked along the pins quickly to bounce the pins up and above the line so that the tension wrench can quickly be turned.

Of course, both of these methods are still viable ways to pick a lock, but there is a new method in town that is easier and requires much less attention to detail.

Lock Bumping Is Growing Rapidly

The new way to pick a lock easily and quietly is with a bump key. Bump keys can be easily created, and people are teaching other people how to create them and use them via videos online. Lock bumping has gone viral, and more and more people are learning how to do it every day.

Bump keys can be created out of old keys or uncut keys. By using a simple file, the key is filed down to create small peaks and valleys like a regular key; however, they are not inconsistent in size like a regular key. Instead, the peaks and valleys are small and even, except for the last peak, which is a little bit higher than the others.

Once the bump key is created, it is inserted into a key lock. It is then pulled back a bit so that a blunt object can ‘bump’ the key into the hole. This does no damage to the key hole, but it does bump the pins up as it enters the hole and for a brief second those pins rise about the line where the turning mechanism and the solid mechanism meet, and this gives free access to turn the lock. All the person has to do is put pressure on the key as the pins rise above the line where the two parts meet, and it instantly and easily turns and opens the lock.

Even The Best Door Locks Aren’t Secure

Knowing how easy it is to create and use bump keys, you should be starting to get a good idea of how even the best locks are not going to provide safety if a key is all that is required to open it. Most people only need to use a bump key a few times before they can easily use it on any lock they encounter, which means that someone can break into your home within a second quietly and unnoticed, day or night.

Ensure that you have extra precautions when you are inside your home to keep yourself and your family safe from someone who thinks they have the upper hand on you.