Bumping

Bumping - How to open even high-security locks in seconds.

Key bumping is a technique different than raking and jiggling first because it is more simple and because it has a good chance of working on even a high-security lock, unless the maker has taken specific protections against key bumping.

The procedure is simple: You enter a specially prepared key blank corresponding to the lock you want to open, apply light turning pressure and then either hit the lock or the blank key with a bump hammer or some other tool to apply force. This will cause the tumblers inside the cylinder to "dance" up and down randomly, each time creating space between the bottom pins and the drivers.

Even a beginner can use key bumping with a decent level of sucess. It doesn't require any knowledge of lock picking. It does not damage the lock, either.

Lock bumping became popular in 2006 during a conference on high security lock devices. It was shown that advanced locks, such as Medeco which are tradionally very hard to lockpick, could be opened with a simple key bumping. Worse, it was shown electronic locks, with a backup key system, could be bumped as well. Any place using these locks could potentially be vulnerable.

There are very few protections against bumping. In fact, advanced locks are even easier to bump as the pins move more freely with less imperfections. A common solution was to use mushroom pins but these too can be bumped correctly after a few times. A common solution is to use an extra pin at the top of a tumbler but this could potentially expose the lock to lockpicking. Finally, different key bumping mechanisms have been designed to counter that problem, but this makes the lock very very expensive (several hundreds of dollars).

Professional Locksmiths rarely use this method of entry because it is generally considered less than professional.  Lock picks and other traditional entry techniques require skill and craftsmanship, whereas, given enough practice, a non-professional relies heavily on the laws of physics and little skillful input to bring about success. 

A set of 8 domestic bump keys is available here at our store:  BumpKey Set.