Attacks Against The Mechanical Pin Tumbler Lock

This paper examines an overview of the common pin tumbler lock and the five methods to exploit them. Pin tumbler locks are found in a vast majority of residential, commercial, government and educational institutions. It is possible for an attacker without using any specialized tools or having an expert skill level to quickly open them. When evaluating the current or future key based pin tumbler lock the security practitioner should protect against the methods of picking, impact, impression, decode and bypass. The relevant information for this paper came from Internet websites, Internet message boards, literature, and video/audio files.