Security professionals Luke Janke and Jay Davis recently showed off a $150 safe cracker that they built from a custom Arduino, 3D-printed components, and salvaged electronics like a step motor formerly utilized in stage lighting. According to The Register, the device can be affixed on top of a combination lock and then used to stage "brute force" attacks. This techniques involves autodialing as many different combinations as possible until the lock is breached.

It reportedly takes less than four days for the duo's invention to break through a lock, a marked improvement over its initial time of 14 days. If the contraption is pre-loaded with default combinations, however, it will be able to accomplish the same job in minutes. "A lot of these locks have about 10 default combinations which never ever get changed and they would be the ones you would want to try out first," said Davis at a recent conference.