The Ultimate Lock was designed to prevent the use of “Bump Keys” with our patented Lock-out feature. Our lock cylinders are also equipped with mushroom pins to help prevent the use of Bump Keys when the lock-out feature is disengaged.
What is a Bump Key?
Web videos that demonstrate how to make a “bump key” are especially unnerving because unlike so much other sketchy content online, these tutorials are real. These instructional pieces typically reveal that any key “when properly used, will open any lock that it fits into,” as boasts one Web instructor.
A bump key is made by taking a key that already fits into a particular brand of lock and filing it down. But turning a blank key into a bump key isn’t as simple as it looks in those Web videos.
First, a key must fit into the lock someone wants to pick—even if the key can’t open the door, it must slide all the way into the lock. A thief would also need to schlep around hundreds of keys to the home(s) they intend to enter since there are so many different key fits on the market.
“Just think of the selection displayed when you get a key duplicated in a hardware store,” says John Galeotafiore, our director of testing for home improvement.
Next, the crook would need to file the cuts in the key down to the deepest depths and then use a “bumping” tool to bounce the pins and open the lock.
“Ultimately, the consumer is responsible for assessing the risk of an attack from bumping,” wrote Marc Weber Tobias, author of Locks, Safes, and Security. In a 2006 analysis on lock bumping, Tobias pointed out that apartment buildings or business complexes that utilize one standard lock brand and model face a high risk of having their locks compromised. The same goes for homeowners whose old keys fall into the wrong hands after a lock has been changed for a similar model.
The bump key phenomenon has received widespread media coverage in recent years—the idea that any handy hooligan can easily gain easy access to your home makes a compelling story on the evening news. But, says Galeotafiore, “Lock bumping shouldn’t be a consumer’s first worry when it comes to the security of his or her home.”
The FBI qualifies lock bumping as forcible entry and attempted forcible entry burglary, crime categories that accounted for more than 60 percent of U.S. burglaries in 2008.
How can you protect yourself?
Experts from a reputed company similar to the Maverick Windows serving all of Houston says that the Ultimate Lock comes standard with a 6 pin key cylinder that is equipped with anti-bump pins (mushroom pins) to make lock bumping even tougher. We have even gone the extra mile and included our patented lock-out feature which will disengaged the cylinder from opening up the lock from the outside of the home. The lock-out feature not only prevents the use of bump-keys, but also traditional lock-picking methods commonly used by professional locksmith services. Even if an individual has the right key, if the lock out feature is engaged then non-forced entry becomes almost impossible. You may also consider seeking key duplication services to make extra copies of your keys.
We invited pop-a-lock, a nation wide locksmith company, to come out with their best locksmiths to try and defeat our lock via lock picking. The results of this test are posted below:
