May 18th, 2005

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Technology
3 Comments »

Kensington, Faites Attention

Apparently all you need to break into a Kensington laptop lock are some scissors, duct tape and a toilet paper roll. The barrier to entry is slightly higher than last year’s Kryptonite lock business, but just barely.

That meme reportedly cost America’s number one bike lock maker US $10 million in lost revenue. This one features a video (WMV, 7.5 MB) of a EuroHax0r (is that a German accent?) cracking a laptop lock in 2 minutes, and that includes time to prepare the materials (well, you have to unwind the toilet paper on your own time).

Among lockpickers, this technique isn’t brand new. However, given that Boing Boing and Gizmodo have picked it up, it could spell bad news for Kensington. When, I wonder, will they respond?

The lesson? Monitor the blogosphere or, sooner or later, you’re going to get burned.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

Anil
May 18th, 2005
4:11 pm

I don’t disagree with any of your points, but boy, I hate that lesson at the end. “Monitor the blogosphere or, sooner or later, you’re going to get burned.” sounds like the reason corporations should engage the weblog medium is because we’ll extort them if they don’t.

The *real* reason companies need to listen to the blogosphere is because there’s tremendous opportunity for them here. For every lock that gets picked, there are a thousand new customers that could be reached, endless amounts of market research available for free, and creative new suggestions for product and service improvements being shared.

Those ideas are far more valuable than just the threat that someone will find a problem in your product. So, companies, come to bloggers to help build your business and to cement your relationship with your customers. It’ll also help if you do come across an unfortunate problem.

[Reply]

Darren
May 18th, 2005
4:36 pm

Anil: Fair enough, my conclusion was a bit inflammatory. When I talk to PR and marketing audiences, it’s always the Kryptonite that elicits the greatest response. They get the whole authenticity/transparency/Cluetrain philosophy, but they really perk up when they witness the blogosphere’s power. A little fear-mongering, I suppose, goes a long way.

[Reply]

Mar C
January 22nd, 2008
9:25 am

I tried this opening technique on my recently bought lock and it didn’t work. Maybe the Microsaver lock got improved over the years.

[Reply]

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