lock mechanism attacks?

Question

Lock picking is it classified under shimming

Answer 1

No, the other way around. A shim is one tool used when picking a lock.

To tie this back to *computer* security, the reknowned computer security expert Matt Blaze wrote two very nice papers on safecracking and breaking master key locks:

http://www.crypto.com/papers/safelocks.pdf
http://www.crypto.com/papers/mk.pdf
http://www.crypto.com/masterkey.html