How To Crack A Combination Lock In Less Than 9 Tries

As if daily fears of security breaches weren't already driving you to paranoid privacy measures, computer hacker Samy Kamkar's new video on how to crack a master combo lock will elevate you to new levels of anxiety.

click to play video
YouTube/Samy Kamkar

Samy lays down the three simple steps to breaking your apparently stone aged piece of security:

1. While lifting the locked shackle, turn the knob counterclockwise starting at the number 0. Between 0 and 11, the lock will “catch” in three places. Two out of three will be straddling a number. Record those two and ignore the one that is not.
2. Now lift the shackle again and turn the knob clockwise, until you encounter resistance. This is is your third number.
3. Type in these three numbers into Kamkar's magical algorithm, and it'll yield your first and third combination numbers, in addition to eight choices for the second.

Try out those eight numbers—et voilà—you've got your combination. Can we trust anything anymore?


h/t: Gizmodo


Michelle No is an editorial assistant at Supercompressor. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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