Hacker News Reader

Comment by linkydinkandyou | Hacker News Reader

The photos weren't really leaked. They were purposefully, proudly, and affirmatively held up by a senior TSA official so a news reporter could photograph them.

While these locks are so easily defeated that this really doesn't make anyone significantly less safe, it does demonstrate that the TSA knows absolutely nothing about security.

View on HN

I'm not sure if it tells us anything about what the TSA knows about security. It was already pretty apparent they didn't know much there. Even just looking at the locks, the master keys would have been pretty easy to reverse engineer from the locks themselves, which of course are sold all over the place.

What's interesting to me is that this shows they don't even know about pretend security. Releasing these pictures doesn't impact real security much, but it does impact the impression of security they try to give to the average idiot.

Have you read the leaked TSA SOP document?

They don't know much.

I am curious if the TSA even uses these keys? I am sure 90% of the time these TSA approved locks are attached to luggage with zippers.

For some reason I have a hunch that TSA agents probably just part the zipper with a bic pen, do whatever inspection is necessary, and re-seal the bag. Seems a bit quicker than fumbling around for the right key.

I like the way you think, but how do you reliably re-seal the bag without using the built-in zipper?

You can just pop open a section of the zipper, then use the zipper over the opened chunk of zipper and it re-seals it

https://youtu.be/zMTXzQ0Vqn8?t=111

Ah, if it has two independent pull-tabs and they are locked together this works.

If you have one pull tab locked to the end of the zipper this does not.

Come to think of it some of my luggage also has locks that secure the zippers in place. Similar to this photo:

http://www.airlineintl.com/files/15/products15988.jpg

This would also hinder this method of opening a bag.

Open - probably not. Open and reseal and you are none the wiser - probably.

I read in another article about this topic that guards in (US) prisons wear a cloth casing/cover over the end of their keys, only to take out the security-sensitive part when they actually use them.

Seems like it would just be easier to get real high security keys. Abloy Protec 2 Elite or the like.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com