carlsson
March 6th, 2007, 07:47 AM
On Sunday evening, I saw an episode of Mythbusters on Discovery Channel. It may have been an old episode, I don't know. In this particular episode they were going to bypass a number of security systems, to see if they were as fail-proof as manufacturers want to claim.
They had a fingerprint activated door lock that noone had managed to break, said the manufacturer. The team first practised on a supposedly much simpler fingerprint lock for computer login, and after a series of attempts came up with a method to duplicate a fingerprint on latex or something similar that the lock would accept as the real thing. It did not work with a piece of photo copied paper though. Happy to have solved a small task, they went to the unbreakable door lock, and using the same method bypassed the lock on first attempt. They even managed to unlock the door using a photo copied paper, so it seemed weaker than the login mechanism on the computer. Not a good commercial for the thankfully anonymous company who had delivered the lock.
Then they had a room with a heat sensor that would start the alarm if someone entered the room. This one was a bit tough to crack, but they found that wearing a fire-proof suit like firemen have was enough to conceal body heat. Alternatively, they made a hole in the ceiling and captured the heat sensor behind a small pane of fibre glass (?) which does not let through infrared radiation. Perhaps it is unlikely that someone would be able to break into the room in this fashion, but it worked.
Another room had a motion sensor, measuring the time for a signal to bounce around the room. After a few failed attempts, it turned out that holding a white sheet in front of you was enough to fool the sensor. Alternatively you could walk really slow through the room, about 20 minutes to cover a few meters.
As a grand finale, they had a safe with a special glass locking mechanism that is said to permanently lock the safe if the glass is broken. It was featured in some movie, where the bad guy drilled a hole through the top, filled the safe with water, inserted a load of TNT and detonated the safe. They wanted to check if it was that easy. To start with, it took them 20 times as long to make a hole into the safe than in the movie. The heat generated from grinding the hole was enough to put everything in the safe on fire: counterfeit money and fake jewellery. Anyway, they continued the task by filling it with water. Unfortunately the safe leaked like a Swiss cheese, so they had to tight it shut with foam on the inside of the door to the safe. Certainly no villain who needs to break into a safe has access to opening it and first tight it shut... Once the safe was filled with water, they inserted the explosives and cleared the area. Yes, the safe opened. The door was found some 20-30 meters away from the safe. The loot was scattered around the area. So while it was possible to break into the safe in a similar way as on the movie, the results were not half as tidy.
Do I have to mention that I have never laughed as much as during this episode?
They had a fingerprint activated door lock that noone had managed to break, said the manufacturer. The team first practised on a supposedly much simpler fingerprint lock for computer login, and after a series of attempts came up with a method to duplicate a fingerprint on latex or something similar that the lock would accept as the real thing. It did not work with a piece of photo copied paper though. Happy to have solved a small task, they went to the unbreakable door lock, and using the same method bypassed the lock on first attempt. They even managed to unlock the door using a photo copied paper, so it seemed weaker than the login mechanism on the computer. Not a good commercial for the thankfully anonymous company who had delivered the lock.
Then they had a room with a heat sensor that would start the alarm if someone entered the room. This one was a bit tough to crack, but they found that wearing a fire-proof suit like firemen have was enough to conceal body heat. Alternatively, they made a hole in the ceiling and captured the heat sensor behind a small pane of fibre glass (?) which does not let through infrared radiation. Perhaps it is unlikely that someone would be able to break into the room in this fashion, but it worked.
Another room had a motion sensor, measuring the time for a signal to bounce around the room. After a few failed attempts, it turned out that holding a white sheet in front of you was enough to fool the sensor. Alternatively you could walk really slow through the room, about 20 minutes to cover a few meters.
As a grand finale, they had a safe with a special glass locking mechanism that is said to permanently lock the safe if the glass is broken. It was featured in some movie, where the bad guy drilled a hole through the top, filled the safe with water, inserted a load of TNT and detonated the safe. They wanted to check if it was that easy. To start with, it took them 20 times as long to make a hole into the safe than in the movie. The heat generated from grinding the hole was enough to put everything in the safe on fire: counterfeit money and fake jewellery. Anyway, they continued the task by filling it with water. Unfortunately the safe leaked like a Swiss cheese, so they had to tight it shut with foam on the inside of the door to the safe. Certainly no villain who needs to break into a safe has access to opening it and first tight it shut... Once the safe was filled with water, they inserted the explosives and cleared the area. Yes, the safe opened. The door was found some 20-30 meters away from the safe. The loot was scattered around the area. So while it was possible to break into the safe in a similar way as on the movie, the results were not half as tidy.
Do I have to mention that I have never laughed as much as during this episode?