Pitched as a way to lock up USB drives, there’s no reason this lock wouldn’t work on anything USB at all, be it humping dogs or high-end studio gear. Slip it onto the plug, roll the numbers, and voila: no USB for them.
Though no deterrent to a committed scoundrel, especially one who knows the dark art of splicing, it should do very well in the Teenage USB Diary segment. Note: useless but amusing on items where the USB cable is plugged in at both ends.
Combination Lock USB Thumb Key Solution [Akihabara News]
Woe to You, Oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the beast with wrath… because he knows the time is short. Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number. Its number is six hundred and sixty six.
Hehe. Those are nines!
What if 6 turned out to be 9?
I don’t mind, I don’t mind
If all the hippies cut off all their hair
Oh I don’t care, oh I don’t care
Those locks are impressively easy to brute-force the combo, or just pry it off with a screwdriver. It can’t hold itself on with more than a few grams of resistance.
Methinks some encryption on the data would be a much more locky lock than this little plastic item.
I actually have a similar device that I picked up a few years ago at an office supply store. (amazon.com) Amazon claims that it’s MSRP is $20, but I’m fairly certain I paid $5 for a two pack.
I carry an old micro-cruiser on my keychain and quickly lost all the little plastic covers that came with it. Since this actually latches on securely, I don’t have to worry about loosing it and having the connector get beat up. I think I would choose this form factor over mine, since mine is about the same physical size as the drive.
Yeah, the security on this thing is pretty minimal. Even if you couldn’t just pry it off with brute force, just cut it off and reconnect the wires — a pretty basic soldering job.
Now, if those tumblers were at the other end, and the data was somehow encrypted until the combo was correct, that this would be pretty sweet…
Forget soldering, we mean “brute force” in the algorithmic sense, i.e. just try every possible combo. Pull gently on the lock so you’ll know when you hit it, spin one wheel all the way around, advance the next wheel one number, repeat a maximum of 100 times. Open in about a minute.
A 4-digit lock of this sort might take 10 or 20 minutes, which could be tedious. These are best opened by leaving them near a child of appropriate temperament (like I used to be). Avoid teenagers though – once open many such locks allow the combo to be changed… a joke that never got old.