Sunday, March 27, 2011

Lawsuit:Magnets defeat push button locks


NYTimes

Yeshai M. Kutoff was house-proud, having bought a home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, for his family of five. And as an Orthodox Jew, he bought push-button locks for the doors — an accommodation for the Sabbath, when many of the devout do not carry keys.

When a neighbor told him that the locks he had bought could be opened by a powerful magnet costing about $30, Mr. Kutoff was perturbed. “It does bother me that other people could easily figure it out,” he said. Mr. Kutoff did not buy a magnet to see for himself. “It doesn’t interest me to know how to break into my own lock,” he said.

If this were a problem with security software instead of errant bits of steel, a company could send out a patch. If this was someplace other than the United States in the 21st century, Mr. Kutoff might have called a locksmith. But because it is the United States in the 21st century, lawyers are involved.

2 comments:

  1. Chaveirim in New York has been using this trick for years to help people locked out get back in.

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  2. ゴリラ ゴリラMarch 27, 2011 at 8:42 AM

    “It doesn’t interest me to know how to break into my own lock,”

    He should be interested. Anyway, I can defeat these locks within 5 minutes without a magnet – there are only 1,082 possible combinations; it's so low because a number or pair of numbers can only be used once. Just look for the well-worn numbers and go for it. I cannot believe shuls and Jewish institutions rely on these locks so much. I've railing about this for years.

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