Bank vaults have ratings that are class M, class I, class II or class III. Those mean that a vault is rated to last 15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes. Even the time some of the most fortified structures would last is measured in minutes. There absolutely no hope that any consumer lock or safe would last a very useful time against a skilled attacker.
Like fences, locks are a social construct. They're meant to practically and legally signify the fact that the owner doesn't want you there, but don't really do much to enforce that. It's basically a matter of it being more of a hassle to break your lock than the neighbour's.
MasterLock is a local, well known brand, and I've done a little work with them. If you ever want to hack one of their electronic products, they're fond of MSP430s.
Perhaps less fond of security measures (competitive with Sentry I would suppose).
Tim
I think Masterlock have a well deserved reputation, you only have to search their name on Youtube for videos which show you exactly how much trust you can place in their products.
Despite that, there is always an impetus to have something that can't be thrown open within a few seconds, in terms of consumer locks.
Master Lock is a brand well known for being absolute junk. While you can't keep someone out forever, only being able to keep them out for 30-60 seconds (the time it takes a common idiot to open your average Master Lock) means that they be very able to get into or steal whatever you're locking up.
Nothing is invincible to a person with good enough skills, but there is always a point of best compromise, where price, skill required to gain access, and time delay to that access make sense for whatever you're protecting. Buying a 300 dollar bike, and using a lock that only costs 12 dollars, but can be opened in 30 seconds by any moron with a hammer is pretty pointless, however spending 30-40 dollars on a secure lock, something with some security pins, and a locking system that can't be bypassed is still not a bank breaker, but will be a better idea.
You can stick your bike outside every day without so much as a zip tie holding it down, and have nobody steal it for a year, but it just takes one person in the right opportunity to take it.
Funny enough opened a similar safe earlier the year, but had limited tools to do it. So, with just a screwdriver and a hammer, it was opened. Similar to the electronic one Dave was cracking, just I did a bypass of the electronics and broke open enough of the plastic so I could get to the latch pin with some wire to release it. Safe went to scrap metal afterwards, as the other option was to just weld up the holes and put a regular cheap 6 lever lock on the door, which would be more secure. However, with the thickest metal being the front door at 5mm, and the rest being 1mm steel with a paint job, i suggested that buying some steel plate and welding together a 5mm all round box would be best.
I had to drill the lock out of a smaller safe a few years ago because some genius had decided the best place to keep the keys to open it when the battery died was...
You guessed it.
Inside the sodding safe.
Electronic Safe Opened in 10 seconds
I've always been interested in security - but only for the benefit of the place I'm at.
Once, there was a security weakness on a door to the network room which was 'fixed'. I had a closer look at it after the 'fix' and fashioned a tool from a piece of plastic available in the office - which allowed me to pass through this door as quick, if not quicker, than someone with the formal authority, so I showed the manager of that department. He knew that I wouldn't be a problem, but he did look concerned.
A couple of days later, he turned up at my desk with a couple of people whom I had never seen before and one of them asked me if I would demonstrate. So I did. They looked rather stunned at not only my ability to open the door, but the speed at which I could do so. They then asked if they could borrow the tool, to which I immediately agreed and they went on their way. I found out a bit later that they had gone around the building using this piece of plastic and identified a few more doors with the same weakness.
Security was upgraded so the plastic tool wouldn't work any more - but I figured out another approach for the door to the network room. This was a bit more involved, taking a couple of minutes - but allowed entry without any obvious signs. I showed this to the manager and he just shook his head and walked away. It did require one critical piece of information which you would only get by having seen the inside of the doorway. Since this door was already inside a secure office, I think he wasn't too worried.
If you ever want to assess security - don't bother too much with the sales brochure, that will only tell you about the areas that the manufacturer has addressed.
Get creative. Think outside the box ... quite literally in some cases. The access system I described above was fine in itself. It was other aspects of the environment in which it had been installed that left it open for circumvention.
In 71-72 I worked for a locksmith company, A Chubb battleship high security padlock would take ten minuets to break using a hand drill. Once went to a jewellers that had locked themselves out of the safe, they were rather surprised when I pulled the safe away from the wall tipped it over and removed the four quarter inch screws from the bottom reached in and remove the contents, a lot of safes are only show.