You don't understand how a Kensington lock is intended to work. The point is not to keep a laptop from being taken by brute force. The intent is to require that enough damage be done to the laptop in the process that no one will want the unit. Grinding a gaping hole in the side greatly reduces any resale value of a laptop which is already not much to begin with. Used laptops aren't worth much and one with obvious case damage is nearly worthless.
That said, lab equipment is a different animal and is worth a large portion of its original value. A hole in the side might reduce it some, but there would still be plenty of value to make it worth stealing even if it requires doing some damage.
---------------^^^^^^ have you ruled out the *thief*? -- who may be very happy with a $1500 laptop that has a "gaping hole" in the back (that he has since covered with duct tape, Bondo, etc.)
Cut the cable by which the "lock-mate" tethers the laptop to . Remove the remaining piece in the privacy/safety of your own home. (this assume you have never hacked the locking device in question -- and have never used a search engine to see how easy it is!)
Most of the Kensington devices that I have seen are easily thwarted (shims, picks, etc. -- e.g., a thin sheet of CARDBOARD, fragment of a soda can, etc!).
I understand how ALL locks work: locks keep honest people honest. Period.
Going out on a limb here- I doubt the local lockpicking club is the group breaking into and robbing homes in the OP's area. You don't need a clever locks on stuff.
Doped up, shitty, smash and grab then sell for 3% of actual value idiots are probably at work.
If you make the job hard enough, people either move on or just get angry and toss stuff around.
The neighbor across the back porch got broken into while I was home once. They had a modern, thin, poorly installed door that broke down like old crappy car. Hell, the thing looked like a bathroom door, but with glossy paint. They never even tried my door, even though it's in a more hidden area. My only guess is a 1000 year old solid wood door with 800 locks would have been more work. I also keep enough junk by the door so you can't even get the space for a good kick, not that that would break it down anyways, which how most doors around here are compromised anyways.
All sorts of things are possible. A Kensington lock deters a large percentage of would be thieves. It is a practical solution that provides a reasonable amount of protection for a low price and a minimum inconvenience. If you have a $1500 laptop and want to eliminate any chance of it being stolen, you can always keep it in your safe deposit box. :)
You have no windows? If there is a window available, no steel door or vault lock is going to do a damned thing. They're just for the honest and insurance companies.
They keep folks who need a "gentle reminder" that "Thou Shalt Not Steal" from stepping over the line. Most "protection devices" have obvious flaws or simple exploits. E.g., many homes have sliding doors that are installed improperly. Your neighbors won't exploit it to enter your home while you are out -- but, a thief would be glad to do so!
Reasons/motivations for an actual "theft" vary.
When I was in school, picking locks was "just something you did". No big deal.
A friend used to wander the basements of the school methodically picking EVERY lock -- leaving the doors, etc. UNlocked when their occupants arrived in the morning. To him, it was just "practice".
Apparently, one day, he decided to do more than just pick the locks, no doubt encouraged by how *easy* it was. He was gone a few days later.
They bragged about how secure the pushbutton locks were at a defense plant where I worked. I laughed and told them they were useless. They quoted the number of possible combinations. I shrugged, looked at the lock, bunched five buttons and opened the door. They demanded to know who gave me the combination. I smiled and told them, Your cleaning service. I was told, in no uncertain terms that they were not given the codes. Then I pointed out that they were not cleaning the face plates so All I had to do was look at one of the locks to know the code. They didn't believe me, so I walked down the hall, opening one restricted area after another. The next day, the chrome bezels were clean and they looked like they had been waxed. ;-)
--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
It seems that most people don't have the skillset/mindset to be able to look at problems from BOTH sides. Designing a lock? Think about how you WILL be able to defeat it. If you can't find a flaw, then you're not qualified to design the lock! :<
A colleague was touting use of a tool that automatically blocked logins from a particular computer (i.e., IP address) after some number of failed login attempts. He considered this a deterrent to folks trying to hack into the system. I posed the following scenario: Every day, at lunch hour or before work (i.e., when few people are around to observe me), I wander into each office/cubicle and attempt to logon to the "bob" (my colleague) account several times. So often that the system protects itself by locking out login attempts for "bob" on that particular computer. As none of these officeholders *are* "bob", it won't bother them; nor will Bob likely ever attempt to access his account from *their* office(s). I.e., I can take my sweet time doing this -- many days! When all of the computers have been "poisoned", I can now walk into Bob's office, before work, and repeat the process for *him*! When he arrives and tries to logon, he'll be denied. When he walks across the hall to Joe's office to try from there, he will ALSO be denied. Etc. Granted, I haven't "stolen" anything from Bob or the company... except the time required to set this right -- Bob's trip to the IT department to explain that he has been locked out of the system for some reason (he probably hasn't considered that he's just been locked out of these COMPUTERS... he's probably wondering if he's going to be escorted out of the building in an unannounced LAYOFF! :> ) But, a mechanism that he intended for one purpose has been effectively used for another -- at some unintended expense!
One day, neighbor complained that their garage door was open when it shouldn't have been. Apparently, happened several times! Until they were outside one day as we drove in OUR driveway and opened OUR door. As they saw *their* door open, they knew what the problem was!
Listen to the folks who sell those sorts of devices and they will tell you how "virtually impossible" it is to get the correct "code". Yet, we did it purely by chance!
Come up with a proposed system; then, turn the bill on your hat around and try to *break* it!
And they probably thought they had fixed the problem. All you need to do is to apply something that is not so easily seen but easily removed by touch. Then check it after the locks have been used, but before they have been cleaned.
The doors have no windows. If you want climb in a window, you better have a good extension ladder. Again, you can get in, it's just more on a pain in the ass than breaking into the other units which don't require all the effort.
simplex type locks are pretty hillarious, expecially when the codes can be entered in any order, or just by hitting all the right buttons in any order.
Of course, you need to add some high security master keyed 6 tumbler lock cylinder into those things and some anti-jimmy plates to make it look official.
The bathroom at work has a menacing looking electronic lock with delivery folks and contractors always ask the code for. There is no code, you just turn the handle and it opens. The lock was destroyed so many times the building management decided to just stop fighting with the tennants and just let folks take a piss without a key or door code.
Again, locks or doors don't do anything to stop anyone who wants to get in. It sounds like you're on the second floor, which is likely why they went elsewhere. The quality of the door, and particularly the lock, are irrelevant.
Hell, one place I worked had the "cipher" lock combinations written on the door jams. Writing them backwards was even enough to keep the dummies in security happy.
These had to be in the right order, but that was no problem since each time someone pushed a button, they wiped some crud off their fingertips. You just punched them in order of the descending crud. :)
--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
This was the old C.E. plant, on Glendale-Milford road. C.E. has a new building and is now part of L-3. The security there was a joke, that's why there were so many locks to keep them out of restricted areas.
--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
At one place I used to work, most of the combinations were either "1492" or the last four digits of the owner's office phone number.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net
I have a second home that I used to lock up tight. I came down one weekend to find it had been broken into. They smashed a window in the garage door so they could reach the inside latch knob... only to find they couldn't open the door anyway because it was on a door opener and they weren't smart enough to reach up for the release handle. lol
But after breaking the glass they found a basement door I had forgotten to lock. It was just kids who took the liquor and made a bit of a mess, but didn't do any real damage. Now I just leave all the doors open and no one has come in for the last 15 years.
The best prevention is just not having anything that would be stolen I think. I might get a big TV at some point now that I have Internet.
They were writing it on the door jam because security demanded that it be changed every month (or two?). No one could remember the combinations, so... Similar things happen with passwords, today.
Before they were required to change the combinations regularly, it was often '1', or '5'.
The better prevention is to live in an area that isn't infested with druggies and bums (often the same). Not having any valuables is a rather poor solution.
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