Kristin Parke knows not to play with handcuffs unless she has a key within easy reach. Kristin, a security consultant and alumna of Hackbright Academy (a software-engineering school for women), was one of 60 women to attend a lockpicking workshop in San Francisco put on by Women in Security and Privacy (WISP). In addition to Kristin, a white-hat hacker and penetration tester by day, I met law students, professionals and techies while learning about delay mechanisms and lock design at the one-day workshop that SFGate dubbed one of the weirdest classes in the Bay Area.
Kristin could be a hand model. I watch her deft manicured fingers lift the pins with a hook tool as she applies gentle pressure to the tension wrench inserted into the lower portion of the pin-tumbler-lock’s keyhole. She quickly unlocks all six of the practice locks, the master lock and, finally, the handcuffs. Meanwhile, I’m sweating it out on lock #1 until a neighbor lets me know I’m holding it upside down. Kristin attributes her tactile abilities to her years spent playing the piano and the flute. She has steady hands from her years of dissecting in a biology lab.
The workshop was created by California-state-certified locksmith Christine Bachman and veteran security engineer Bob Hermes. Bob and Christine met at a lockpicking meet-up and bonded over their love of locks and all things picking. She says that the Bay Area is home to an especially close community of pickers. I asked Christine who comes to her classes.
“All sorts of people come to learn to lockpick,” she said. “We get a huge spectrum of people, from young college students to working professionals to families coming in with their kids. Lockpicking is really for anyone who likes puzzles, brain teasers and a good challenge.” She added that there seemed to be a “trend of IT-security or InfoSec people” who came to their meetings, which she chalked up to the similarities between physical and digital security.
Christine’s skills come in handy all the time. She once saved a bunch of toddlers from starvation and poopy diapers when a preschool lost their last key to a supply shed.
Handcuff-challenge winner Aisling Dempsey, a software engineer by day, modestly chalked up her success to luck. I asked her why high-tech hackers picked locks. She told me she’s the type of person who wonders “how things work underneath” and that lockpicking is like a sport for hackers. Hacking involves a similar set of skills. Later, during the networking-activity discussion about whether the future would be more or less secure, she explained how easy Facebook makes it to reverse-engineer passwords.
In the information-security field, you’re always probing for vulnerabilities. I poked into lock after lock, searching for weak spots until the little fuckers yielded to my will and sprung open. Learn to find the flaws so as to better protect yourself. Instructor and handcuff aficionado Bob Hermes said that locks are “mechanical puzzles you get to solve … lockpicking is a superpower.” Bob picks locks for fun sometimes while he’s watching TV.
You know how some keys have “Do Not Duplicate” imprinted on them? Turns out there’s an app to get around that. KeyMe scans a photo of your key in case the extra you keep under the garden gnome goes missing. According to Christine Bachman, a photo is all you need to duplicate a key. “Your key is your password,” she said. “Keep that safe.”
Women in Security and Privacy, which was created to “[promote] the development, advancement and inclusion of women in the information-security and privacy fields,” grew from seven women in 2014 to over 750 members today. In the San Francisco Bay Area, WISP offers hands-on security and privacy workshops, panel discussions, networking events and their flagship mentorship program.
I’ve tried a lot of meet-ups and gone to networking events in San Francisco, but I’ve never had as much fun or met as many interesting people as I did in this seminar. It was well organized and inexpensive (just $15); there was food and wine; and everyone was smiling. And there was a picture of Sarah Connor on the invitation. Who doesn’t want to be a badass paperclip-lockpicking, asylum-escaping Terminator heroine?
