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Key Duplication From Afar Using Just a Photograph

July 7, 2011 By Aaron Leave a Comment

 

spacer As if our worries about lock bumping weren’t enough, I recently came across an article about computer scientists who are able to duplicate keys by simply analyzing a picture of the key using software they have developed.
UC San Diego computer scientists have built a software program that can perform key duplication without having the key. Instead, the computer scientists only need a photograph of the key.
[...]
In one demonstration of the new software system, the computer scientists took pictures of common residential house keys with a cell phone camera, fed the image into their software which then produced the information needed to create identical copies. In another example, they used a five inch telephoto lens to capture images from the roof of a campus building and duplicate keys sitting on a café table about 200 feet away.
[...]
The keys used in the most common residential locks in the United States have a series of 5 or 6 cuts, spaced out at regular intervals. The computer scientists created a program in MatLab that can process photos of keys from nearly any angle and measure the depth of each cut. String together the depth of each cut and you have a key’s bitting code, which together with basic information on the brand and type of key you have, is what you need to make a duplicate key.
Luckily for us, preventing this attack is rather simple:
  • Keep your keys in a purse or pocket, don’t leave them laying out in plain view.
  • If you are posting any pictures to the internet, make sure you blur out any keys or identifying information in the photos before posting.
  • At work, keep your keys with you at all times or stash them away out of sight.
You can read the full article here: Keys Can Be Copied From Afar, Jacobs School Computer Scientists Show
You can also read more about the software project at the Sneakey website.
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Filed Under: Home Security Tagged With: key duplication, keys, lock bumping, software

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