Marc Weber Tobias

Marc Weber Tobias is an American lawyer, writer, and researcher specializing in security systems, particularly locks and physical security mechanisms. He is known for his work on lock designs and what he calls insecurity engineering.

Early life and education From an early age, Tobias developed an interest in disassembling objects to understand their functionality, which led him to focus on analyzing and testing the vulnerabilities of locks and security systems.

Tobias earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 1970 and a Juris Doctor from Creighton Law School in 1973.

Tobias co-founded the Security Engineering Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh with Tobias Bluzmanis, where students study both technical and ethical considerations in discovering security vulnerabilities. He serves as the co-principal of Securitylaboratories.org. His practice focuses on technical fraud investigations and providing consultancy on security issues, including lock bypass techniques and analyzing security system flaws.

Writing In 1971, Tobias authored the first edition of Locks, Safes, and Security: An International Police Reference which is considered as the bible for law enforcement and crime laboratories. The book's second edition was published in 2000 which was reviewed by several security periodicals that included ASIS Security Management, and the Journal of Forensic Identification.

In 2008, Tobias co-authored Open in Thirty Seconds: Cracking One of the Most Secure Locks in America which describes methods to defeat Medeco locks.

In 2024, his eighth book, Tobias on Locks and Insecurity Engineering, was published by Wiley. The book discusses the historical development of lock engineering and examines the progression of lock technologies, from traditional mechanical systems to modern digital codes. It discusses how increasing complexity in lock design can introduce new vulnerabilities.