“…The only reason these events did not result in a successful terror attack is because the bad guys were thieves and smugglers, not terrorists…” – David Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance
Category: Security
The Power of 1 Slice of Bread
Every wonder why there aren’t as many open-face sandwiches for sale in your local supermarket. No?…..well, it’s political: “USDA inspects manufacturers of packaged open-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with one slice of bread), but FDA inspects manufacturers of packaged closed-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with two slices of bread).” – U.S. […]
Feeling Temporarily Secure
I’ve been to handful of airports – the underlying architecture of them all is: open, flowing, permanent. The ironic exception is the airport checkpoints – like pop-up stores in malls. Foldable tables, movable queue markers, equipment on wheels – makes it feel so temporary. Like it just might packed up and gone tomorrow. “The tables […]
A Cry for Help
If a month-old baby going through an x-ray machine can’t bring a heavy dose of common sense to the TSA, what will? “Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which manages LAX screeners, said the agency doesn’t have enough workers to constantly stand at tables in front of the screeners to coach passengers […]
What’s Your Traveller Risk Score?
“It’s probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected” – David Sobel, EFF lawyer. Like all these systems, we are all judged in secret, by a computer algorithm, with no way to see or even challenge our score. Kafka would be proud. – Bruce Schneier
We’ll Get Better Security When it Makes Business Sense
“Before the photo ID requirement, these tickets were regularly advertised in classified pages: “Round trip, New York to Los Angeles, 11/21-30, male, $100.” Since the airlines never checked IDs, anyone of the correct gender could use the ticket. Airlines hated that, and tried repeatedly to shut that market down. In 1996, the airlines were finally […]
Security is Really Customer Service in Disguise
A confused, elderly woman with a full, knotted, plastic shopping bag was in front of the scanner. The security checkpoint line out of Minneapolis stalled as I put all my stuff in multiple bins. When a uniformed TSA person asked her if she had a boarding pass, she mumbled the need for help getting a […]
PopSci Delivers Geek Triumverate
PopSci Podcast #14: Jonathan Coulton asks Bruce Schneier about the risks of snakes on a plane.
No Passengers Equals No Threats?
A terrorist threat is thwarted in London. The reaction here and there – making flying more uncomfortable for everyone else, heighten the ‘threat alert’ to ‘red’ (because something might happen we’re not aware of? – hmmm. I felt more secure). Seems that with the plot foiled, we should be _safer_ in the immediate short term […]
Advice to Web Developers: Forget the Password
This weekend while wandering down the aisles of our local Super Target, we found a dinner table and a side board we though would go great in our living/dining room. After checking out, a couple of teenage boys wheeled the still flat-packed pieces to our awaiting PT Cruiser. Now, after flattening the inside of the […]