How to Find That If Your Home Door Locks Has Been Picked by Others

People always ignore the security of their home door lock and never check the function of lock before the lock is locked or broken. While, the locks may be already picked by others, like thieves. Do you want to know how to check if your home door locks has been picked? You can read this article and learn from it.

 

What are the signs a lock has been picked?

Lock picking is a covert form of entry, and rarely leaves clearly visible indications that can be detected without forensic investigation. A forensic locksmith can take the lock apart and look for markings on the keyway, pins, actuator, and pin chambers. You can try to look for these indications yourself, but without professional oversight, there is no way to make a conclusive declaration as to whether or not a lock has been picked.

 

Know Lock Picking at First

Lock picking describes a classification of methods that can open locks without the proper key. There are many ways to unlock a door without a key, but lock picking also denotes that the lock is manipulated via the keyway, and does not include attacks focused on the door, latch, or bolt. Additionally, lock picking is non-destructive and is therefore covert.

 

Covert entry means the method is detectable through forensic evaluation but is otherwise imperceptible. For our purposes here, certain covert and surreptitious forms of entry such as decoding and lock impressioning will be excluded from the designation of lock picking.

 

Standard Lock Picking Process

Standard lock picking methods include raking and single pin picking. Although they are distinctive from one another, from a mechanical understanding, they work on the same principle. Raking being the less precise application of the underlying methods of single pin picking. But both processes come down to the use of two lock picking tools, a pick, and a tension tool. The tension tool is placed at the top or bottom of the keyway and torques the plug of the lock so the internals can be manipulated by the pick.

 

These methods are the default depiction of lock picking in pop culture and are what most people picture when you say lock picking. We can think of this as standard lock picking. Most locks use a pin tumbler system, so the internals being manipulated are likely to be ‘pins’. We don’t need to get into the process any more than that because we have already covered what parts of the lock are going to show signs of wear as a result of this type of lock picking.

 

Visible Indications of Standard Lock Picking

Cuts and gouges on the top and/or bottom of the keyway.

Small scratches on the key pins, which are distinct from normal wear.

Scratches on the sides of the pins are especially damning evidence.

 

Without taking the lock apart, you can investigate the top and bottom of the keyway for small scratches and gouges that suggest the use of a tension tool. A key does not interact with the lock in a way that leaves these subtle, yet distinctive markings. With the lock taken apart, the pins can also be investigated for scratches and tiny cuts.

 

Old locks will have very smooth pins from the key acting like a pumice stone, grinding the pins down with every insertion. New locks will have pins with milling marks and dents from imprecise manufacturing, but these do not look like scratches left by a lock pick. The last pin (furthest back in the keyway) in a non-picked lock should also have less wear than the other pins because the key interacts with the final pin the least.

 

How To Prevent Standard Lock Picking

Security pins.

Non-standard lock types.

Complex keys.

 

If you need to improve your apartment security but cannot upgrade your locks, you still may be able to re-pin your lock. This will not change which keys have access, but will instead replace standard pins with security pins of a similar length. This creates no change that will disturb the property manager or landlord. All that will be different is that your lock is less vulnerable to lock picking. But if you can upgrade to a higher security lock, consider using something other than a standard pin tumbler lock.

 

Non-standard lock types can include keyless door locks, which provide no keyway to exploit. They may be vulnerable to other exploits, but every lock is. However, some locks have no known lock picking vulnerabilities yet, and those provide a similar level of anti-picking security. Even a lock can be picked, something like the Mul-T-Lock MT5+ core uses a complex key with an active element that will stop any lock picking amateur in their tracks.