Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Schneier on Security: Sneaking Items Aboard Aircraft
I was once late for a flight out of Halifax. I was stopped and had to decide whether to leave my Swiss Army knife with security (i.e. have it confiscated) or miss the flight. Please note that this was the smallest product available from victorinox. If I hadn't been late, I could arranged to have the little thing mailed back to myself, but I was late so I did lose the tool. Which why I'm sympathetic with this one:
Schneier on Security: Sneaking Items Aboard Aircraft: "Security systems fail in one of two ways. They can fail to stop the bad guy, and they can mistakenly stop the good guy. The TSA likes to measure its success by looking at the forbidden items they have prevented from being carried onto aircraft, but that's wrong. Every time the TSA takes a pocketknife from an innocent person, that's a security failure. It's a false alarm. The system has prevented access where no prevention was required. This, coupled with the widespread belief that the bad guys will find a way around the system, demonstrates what a colossal waste of money it is." ¶ 3:13 p.m.
I was once late for a flight out of Halifax. I was stopped and had to decide whether to leave my Swiss Army knife with security (i.e. have it confiscated) or miss the flight. Please note that this was the smallest product available from victorinox. If I hadn't been late, I could arranged to have the little thing mailed back to myself, but I was late so I did lose the tool. Which why I'm sympathetic with this one:
Schneier on Security: Sneaking Items Aboard Aircraft: "Security systems fail in one of two ways. They can fail to stop the bad guy, and they can mistakenly stop the good guy. The TSA likes to measure its success by looking at the forbidden items they have prevented from being carried onto aircraft, but that's wrong. Every time the TSA takes a pocketknife from an innocent person, that's a security failure. It's a false alarm. The system has prevented access where no prevention was required. This, coupled with the widespread belief that the bad guys will find a way around the system, demonstrates what a colossal waste of money it is." ¶ 3:13 p.m.
