Why You Should Keep Your Keys Hidden
November 3, 2008 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Announcements
Not your data or virtual keys mind you. Over the last week, computer scientists from the University of California San Diego extension demonstrated a program that can duplicate a key with physically owning one, a process named teleduplication.
Stefan Savage, the university professor who acted as project led, summed up the obectives: “We built our key duplication software system to show people that their keys are not inherently secret. Perhaps this was once a reasonable assumption, but advances in digital imaging and optics have made it easy to duplicate someone’s keys from a distance without them even noticing.”
A scary process no doubt, but one that will probably only affect people who absent-mindedly leave their keys out for everyone to see. And you know no one sensible does that, right?
(image and source from ucsd.edu)
Who is really in the need for technology like this? Seriously bad things could come from this.
I think the project was meant to show that teleduplication is possible, to warn people not to be so open with their keys.
Prof. Savage sounds like a villain’s name in DC Comics.
Jokes apart, I see the project as an example of how far computer visualization has advanced.
Coming to its purpose, it is very common for security experts to innovate ways of breaking keys and systems. The breaking might need very sophisticated means, but if it is possible, they have a better idea of where to work on.
“….that can duplicate a key with physically owning one…”
I believe you meant to write without owning one.
Anyway, I’m not surprised that this can be done- most keys come in standard sizes and varieties… the problem would be figuring out what the key went to… unless you followed someone around using security cameras… but odds are if you have access to the security cameras in a building, you can probably get in to any door in that building that you want to anyway.