Blog
Friday, September 18. 2009German hacker 3D prints Dutch police handcuff keyLike all technologies, you can put 3D Printing to dubious use as well.. Today's news is a German hacker, Ray. Ray likes to collect handcuffs and find crazy ways to open them. This time he was able to duplicate the key to Dutch police handcuffs (there's only one key format - duh!). He simply took a high-resolution photograph of a key that was dangling from a policeman's belt, reconstructed it in 3D software and printed it on a 3D printer. And yes, it worked!
It's probably not legal to own such a key so I don't advise printing one, but it does make for a very interesting demonstration of what happens once production tools become democratized. Now handcuffs are only for temporarily restraining suspects (at least by the Dutch police), so I don't think this is a major issue for them. Still, the trouble with the interweb is of course that once a file it out in the open (as it is in this case) it's extremely difficult - if not impossible - to remove it, making the key in question virtually useless. If this had happened to, say, a master key of a building, you'd have to replace every lock.. This story is not unlike the British police chief Bob Quick, whose secret document was photographed on the street. Do we need to be more careful 'out there'? I makes me wonder what's next; people taking an ultra-high resolution photograph of your thumb to replicate your fingerprint? (yes Ray, we have your fingerprint on file now, too [Via blackbag.nl] Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
Someone could 3D print a key for my car, and it wouldn't start. Gotta have the chip in the key. People have been copying keys and classified papers since both were invented. Couldn't he have tooled the key from the image? My point is with new technology comes new ways of doing old things. Take away the image, and someone could have hacked the manufactures system and got the key. Take away the network, and someone could have paid off someone to get the key. blahdy blah, I would see it as a real 3D printing crime, if someone looked at the statue of David and realized it had been replaced by a 3D print. Just like the printing press, and printers have created duplications of paintings.
Tomorrow's headline: "Jailed inmate escapes using key printed by Shapeways: Fast service makes for a quick escape."
it was a Dutch key because we were all at HAR (Hacking At Random) the event taking place in the woods near Vierhouten in the Netherlands. Also, the German Polizei don't often use special or restricted cuffs, to my knowledge. The Dutch, on the other hand, have these specific handcuffs which are only sold to them (at least, only to them with this specific key profile.)
Hacking At Random... https://har2009.org German Sportpicking Group... http://ssdev.org Dutch Sportpicking Group... http://toool.nl Our American Division of the Above Group... http://toool.us
Aha! Of course... the more strict the security policies and the more exclusive the hardware the more exciting for hackers and lock pickers, etc.
|
Quicksearch |
Replicating your car keys when you leave your car?
Twitter
