The Open Organisation of Lockpickers or TOOOL is an organization of individuals who partake in the hobby of

locksport Locksport is the sport or recreation of defeating Lock (security device), locking systems. Its enthusiasts learn a variety of skills including lock picking, lock bumping, and a variety of other skills traditionally known only to locksmithing, loc ...

, as well as educate its members and the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

about the security provided by locks. It has two main chapters based in

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, where it originated. After opening in the United States of America in 2004, it has established several chapters located in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

including ones in major cities such as

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, many of which meet regularly.

Mission

The mission of the Open Organisation of Lockpickers is to advance public knowledge about locks and lockpicking. TOOOL hopes to educate the public by examining locks, safes, and other such hardware and by publicly discussing findings. TOOOL asserts that "the more that people know about lock technology, the better they are capable of understanding how and where certain weaknesses are present. This makes them well-equipped to participate in sportpicking endeavors and also helps them to simply be better consumers in the marketplace, making decisions based on sound fact and research."

Legal concerns

In the Netherlands, the law allows possession of lockpicking tools as long as there is no intent on using them unlawfully. TOOOL members have to adhere to a code of conduct that includes, among other things, to remain professional in their activities and not to use the skills learned for anti-social activities. The US organization has a table on their website which explains the lock picking laws in each state
https://www.toool.us/lockpicking-laws

Lock bumping

In 2005, the technique of

lock bumping Lock bumping is a lock picking technique for opening a pin tumbler lock using a specially crafted bump key, rapping key or 999 key. A bump key must correspond to the target lock in order to function correctly. History A US patent first appears i ...

was brought to public attention when members of TOOOL first drafted a white paper describing the technique, then went on a Dutch national television show, ''Nova'', to describe the technique to the general public. TOOOL has since cooperated with consumer groups in testing the resistance of various locks to the technique.

Events

TOOOL is responsible for hosting or co-hosting many of the lockpicking areas of popular hacker conferences around the world including

DEF CON DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon, or DC) is a Computer security conference, hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include comp ...

and

HOPE Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...

. The Netherlands branch of TOOOL also hosts its own conference and competition—LockCon and the Dutch Open. The Dutch Open began in 2008 and is held during LockCon. TOOOL attracted media attention when it hosted a "Love Picking" event to preserve locks on the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It w ...

Similar organisations

OpenLocks.at
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Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

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Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

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Schlösser picken als Schweizer Sport
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Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

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France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

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Sportsfreunde der Sperrtechnik - Deutschland e.V.
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Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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References

External links

TOOOL Netherlands Official WebsiteTOOOL United States Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Open Organisation Of Lockpickers Locksmithing organizations Sports governing bodies in the Netherlands Sports governing bodies in the United States