LockCon 2018 Conference Wrap-Up

Recently we were invited to go to LockCon in the Netherlands where we presented on tamper evident bypassing. The talk was much the same as what we presented at OzLockCon with a few changes including new techniques we had learnt since then.

At the conference we went in a lock picking competition. There were ten people at each table and you got 5 minutes to pick the lock. If you picked it you wrote down the time. You then passed the lock to the person on your left and the timer started again. So we all had 10 locks to pick and in the end I managed to pick 1 lock and my sister picked 4 locks  – I’m sure she was on the easy table 😉 Poor dad didn’t pick any 🙁

It was a 4 day conference and our room was at the top of the bell tower which was cool but it was very hot at the top. The conference was held at a castle which was really really really cool and the castle had so many rooms i couldn’t even count them all. Our room was number 13.

We got some new high security locks from a new friend we made. The one on the right is a cutaway so you can see how it works.

We also were given a new tool which can pretty much do anything.

I really enjoyed the con. it was fun but soon we had to say goodbye to everyone and also some friendly peacocks I met on the first day of the con.

After that we headed off to Germany for a holiday.

– Mos

In September we flew to Amsterdam and spent 3 days there and then headed by train to LockCon 2018. It was held in a CASTLE!!!! We took our drone with us to Europe and this is a picture of the castle 🙂

When we arrived we got our room key and we had to walk up so many staircases because we where sleeping in the bell tower and it looked so old but was really cool. Luckily after we got up there we found a lift right outside our door that we could catch but it was very slow.

We saw a few presentations including one on bypassing Bluetooth locks which looked fun so we decided dad should buy some so we can learn more about Bluetooth and networking. Dad bought one before we left Europe so we already have it to play with 🙂

We presented on Tamper Evident Bypassing on the Friday afternoon and got a lot of applause at the end so we think it went really well.

Mos, me and dad entered the lock picking competition and were competing against champion lock pickers. Dad picked zero locks,  Mos 1 and me 4. Here are my times:

• Lock 2 – 3:57
• Lock 4: 1.50
• Lock 8 – 3:17
• Lock 11 – 2:31

When we were there we were interviewed by the BBC for The One Show. Kate was the assistant producer, Daniel is the one who filmed it, and Christine was the one who asked us the questions.

The One Show has now come out and you can watch it on Youtube. The section on Lockcon starts at 51:44 and our bit is at 54:19

At the conference there were a lot of new people that we didn’t know and we made lots of new friends which is always the best part of cons.

Also our friend Topaz gave us two new locks each and we have been practising picking them. He also introduced us to Hagelslag for breakfast, or any other time. We bought a couple of boxes to take home before we left Holland.

Before the lock picking comp we got our photo taken by a photographer named Dennis who took some incredible photos. He was doing a project called Shoot All the Hackers. Here is one of the photos he took of Mos and me:

We had an amazing time!!!

– Boo