3D printers can do plenty of good — like creating dinosaur bone replicas or blood vessel networks — but as one hacker shows, they also have potentially problematic uses. Speaking at the Hackers On Planet Earth conference in New York, as reported by Forbes, a man going only by the name “Ray” showed that it was possible to open up high security handcuffs using plastic keys he made with a laser cutter and 3D printer. He was able to create working replicas for handcuffs made by Bonowi and Chubb — copies of which he found on eBay and elsewhere — though the plexiglass key proved too weak to open a pair built by Clejuso.
3D printed key used to open handcuffs
Using a 3D printer and a laser cutter, one hacker was able to create working keys for high-security handcuffs.
Using a 3D printer and a laser cutter, one hacker was able to create working keys for high-security handcuffs.
is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.
"Lock security was broken before. I've just made it easier."
Ray, who has served as a handcuff advisor to German police, says that he is making this information available not to help criminals, but to make the security issue more widely known. “We’re just making everyone aware, both the hackers and the police,” he said. “Lock security was broken before. I’ve just made it easier.” Ray says that he will be posting the CAD file for the Chubb key — the most easily obtainable of the three — on Thingiverse.com.
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