> Are those marks visible with the naked eye or do you have to use magnification to see them?
Visible with the naked eye
> Are there any pics anywhere that show what such marks look like, and could they be caused by anything other than picking?
Sure, it's possible they could have been caused by something else, but it's unlikely given the context.
Yes, there are photos, but I'm not able to share them at the moment. When I travel internationally to "sketchy" places, I always photograph my luggage thoroughly before and after transiting.
Hah I photograph my stuff too in hotels when I leave for the day. And I leave my stuff arranged randomly so I can see if it's been disturbed. When I come back I check it with the photo.
I thought I was just being paranoid.
Actually I probably am paranoid. Doesn't mean that aren't after me though! :)
Fascinating information, but considering all of the posts on HN about how many other types of forensics are pseudoscience, I wonder how lockpicking forensics measures up.
This is probably the easiest kind of forensics to do scientifically, because you can just buy locks and put them through X cycles (even automatically) and then look at the pins. Then pick them in various ways and look at the marks. I'm relatively sure that's how most of the data on that site was created.
How did you know someone tried to pick it?