I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
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@alice You're so fn cool. This is so fn cool. I was scrolling in bed dozing off and now I'm wide awake THISISSOFNCOOOOOL!!!!
@r3dr3clus3 thanks 🥰 I'm pretty pleased with myself for it

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@bonkers I've picked thousands and thousands of locks, and there are only a few that I've not been able to open so far.
But to answer the heart of your question, a lock only needs to be more secure than the weakest link in your security, and resistance to brute force (like an angle grinder, ramset, or crowbar) is going to be more important than pick-resistance in almost every case.
Most people don't know how to pick locks.
Most professional locksmiths would have trouble with a Medeco. Most hobby lockpickers would have trouble with an ACE store-brand lock, or an American 1100, or an ABUS Titalium.
Of course, none of that matters much if you have an accessible window, or some other way of getting past a lock without bothering with it.
@alice looking at your video, it seems easy to learn how to pick :))
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I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
Single-pin-picking, 8 differently-keyed, 4-pin, standard¹ padlocks, in 56 seconds.
And I did it while wearing a fluffy bear suit.
¹ the current record holder used laminated Master locks with no security pins, but I didn't want all the comments on my video to be "Master lock sucks" jokes, so I used Brinks instead.
@alice whoa, that is awesome!
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I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
Single-pin-picking, 8 differently-keyed, 4-pin, standard¹ padlocks, in 56 seconds.
And I did it while wearing a fluffy bear suit.
¹ the current record holder used laminated Master locks with no security pins, but I didn't want all the comments on my video to be "Master lock sucks" jokes, so I used Brinks instead.
@alice Hell yeah! Congratulations!
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@alice looking at your video, it seems easy to learn how to pick :))
@bonkers sure, I teach people all the time, and I'm sure I could teach you to open one of those Brinks locks at least once in the first 15 minutes or so.
But keep in mind that Olympic gymnasts make things like double backflips look trivial, and professional powerlifters can lift 400lbs like I lift a bag of cat food.
I've put in several thousand hours of lockpicking practice since I started a decade ago.
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I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
Single-pin-picking, 8 differently-keyed, 4-pin, standard¹ padlocks, in 56 seconds.
And I did it while wearing a fluffy bear suit.
¹ the current record holder used laminated Master locks with no security pins, but I didn't want all the comments on my video to be "Master lock sucks" jokes, so I used Brinks instead.
@alice Awesome
That second to last one was a bit recalcitrant, so you could possibly improve on this




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@bonkers sure, I teach people all the time, and I'm sure I could teach you to open one of those Brinks locks at least once in the first 15 minutes or so.
But keep in mind that Olympic gymnasts make things like double backflips look trivial, and professional powerlifters can lift 400lbs like I lift a bag of cat food.
I've put in several thousand hours of lockpicking practice since I started a decade ago.
@alice I'm not telling you it's easy. But it looks easy

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@TheGreatLlama obviously!
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@alice Awesome
That second to last one was a bit recalcitrant, so you could possibly improve on this




@davep yeah, I made three mistakes. You can see I picked up the first two locks backwards and had to flip them, then I overset a pin on the second to last lock and fumbled with it for a couple extra seconds.
If I fixed those three issues next time, I think I can get 9 locks done in 60 seconds, which would cement my record.
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I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
Single-pin-picking, 8 differently-keyed, 4-pin, standard¹ padlocks, in 56 seconds.
And I did it while wearing a fluffy bear suit.
¹ the current record holder used laminated Master locks with no security pins, but I didn't want all the comments on my video to be "Master lock sucks" jokes, so I used Brinks instead.
@alice
The only thing missing is dropping the tools nonchalantly and yelling “TIME!”.Also vibrating locks open WR 100% when?

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@bonkers I've picked thousands and thousands of locks, and there are only a few that I've not been able to open so far.
But to answer the heart of your question, a lock only needs to be more secure than the weakest link in your security, and resistance to brute force (like an angle grinder, ramset, or crowbar) is going to be more important than pick-resistance in almost every case.
Most people don't know how to pick locks.
Most professional locksmiths would have trouble with a Medeco. Most hobby lockpickers would have trouble with an ACE store-brand lock, or an American 1100, or an ABUS Titalium.
Of course, none of that matters much if you have an accessible window, or some other way of getting past a lock without bothering with it.
@alice I’m wondering if you have given a shit like this a go…
I’ve seen some russian guys creating a tool to decode the lock, but it still takes a lot of time, as you need to SPP it every quarter of turn…

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I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
Single-pin-picking, 8 differently-keyed, 4-pin, standard¹ padlocks, in 56 seconds.
And I did it while wearing a fluffy bear suit.
¹ the current record holder used laminated Master locks with no security pins, but I didn't want all the comments on my video to be "Master lock sucks" jokes, so I used Brinks instead.
@alice hopefully red team tools will start selling bear suits so we can all get better.
It’s a long time since I tried recording myself picking a lock, I’m sure it makes it harder.
Nicely done!
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@alice I’m wondering if you have given a shit like this a go…
I’ve seen some russian guys creating a tool to decode the lock, but it still takes a lot of time, as you need to SPP it every quarter of turn…

over 4 billion key combinations - it means, a 64-bit number. Even if you do 10 combinations per second, you still need many thousands of lifetimes for it.
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@alice I’m wondering if you have given a shit like this a go…
I’ve seen some russian guys creating a tool to decode the lock, but it still takes a lot of time, as you need to SPP it every quarter of turn…

@ssamulczyk I've picked some crazy locks, but haven't tried a Tytan ZX before.
The decoder tool is $2,507.81 USD according to https://ivaylov.com/product/gerda-decoder-for-tytan-zx/ -
I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
Single-pin-picking, 8 differently-keyed, 4-pin, standard¹ padlocks, in 56 seconds.
And I did it while wearing a fluffy bear suit.
¹ the current record holder used laminated Master locks with no security pins, but I didn't want all the comments on my video to be "Master lock sucks" jokes, so I used Brinks instead.
@alice @lisamelton TIL this is a thing, I need to get on the hobby. A ton of folks in my field do it and I have some of the toools - need to get some locks and watch tutorials.
Any recommended?
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I just beat the Guinness world record for speed-picking by 4 seconds!
Single-pin-picking, 8 differently-keyed, 4-pin, standard¹ padlocks, in 56 seconds.
And I did it while wearing a fluffy bear suit.
¹ the current record holder used laminated Master locks with no security pins, but I didn't want all the comments on my video to be "Master lock sucks" jokes, so I used Brinks instead.
@alice
But... I thought you'd be automatically disqualified for not throwing the locks into the black void after picking them...

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over 4 billion key combinations - it means, a 64-bit number. Even if you do 10 combinations per second, you still need many thousands of lifetimes for it.
@bonkers the locks I was just picking have something like 5k key combinations (4 pins, up to maybe 10 possible lengths per pin, minus MACS). I obviously don't have to try 2.5k combinations on average to open one. Adding more pins does make it more complex (in the Tytan's case, 16 pins!), but that doesn't exponentially increase the difficulty, as the trick to picking locks quickly is in cutting the search space down using flaws in the lock design and machining.
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@alice @lisamelton TIL this is a thing, I need to get on the hobby. A ton of folks in my field do it and I have some of the toools - need to get some locks and watch tutorials.
Any recommended?
@christoff check out #LearnLockpickingWithAlice
I cover a lot of intro stuff pretty quickly, and answer quite a few beginner questions. -
@christoff check out #LearnLockpickingWithAlice
I cover a lot of intro stuff pretty quickly, and answer quite a few beginner questions.@christoff I'm also happy to answer any questions you may have afterwards 🩷
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@alice
But... I thought you'd be automatically disqualified for not throwing the locks into the black void after picking them...

@baardhaveland I use padded work-surfaces because I cherish my love locks and don't abuse them.