Securing Objects With K-wheel Locks

Locks are effective control against intruders who may want to gain access to protected objects such as houses, cars, boxes, briefcases, and the likes. Control can be physical or procedural. The physical control still involves the use of locks, some of which have wheels that are calibrated from 0 to (n-1), where n is the number of digits on the kth wheel with k as the number of wheels. A k-wheel briefcase, with each wheel having n integer number of digits for example, will lead to nk keyspace, in which one of the key combination is the right one for opening the object. This paper identified the flaws associated with the design of locks and then propose a method based on the cryptanalysis of the keyspace to generate the key combination for opening an object with k-wheel locks and at the same time recommended further actions that can forestalled masquerades from opening objects having k-wheel locks by increasing the keyspace. In addition, the use of irregular wheels with varied calibrated digits and letters was recommended to further secure locks with k-wheel dials.