Explosives planted on man to test airport security | Hacker News Reader

Explosives planted on man to test airport security

news.bbc.co.uk

22 pointsgridspy18 comments

"Slovak authorities were reportedly trying to test screening procedures for checked-in luggage by placing items with unwitting passengers."

Red-Team screening is a fairly important element of the TSA's approach to testing network security, but you run your own people (with appropriate ID and escalation contacts) through these security checkpoints. At the _most_ you grab some civilian security contractors.

Something about "unwitting passengers" makes me want to ask WTF? If the Slovakian minister for the interior had not apologized, I wouldn't have believe the article had their facts straight.

Bizarre.

There are some inaccuracies in BBC report. Here is what happened according to Slovak news [1]:

Slovak police was training explosive sniffing dogs at Poprad airport. They planted several samples of explosives in passengers' luggage (90 grams of RDX / Hexogen [2]).

Here versions differ - Slovak police claims they planted two, Irish media tell they planted eight samples. One of these was missed by dogs and subsequently police screwed up, forgot about it and let it pass to the airplane.

The explosive sample was in a baggage of Slovak citizen living and working in Ireland.

Once the police realized their mistake, they let know the pilot (still during the flight), and he was supposedly ok with it.

They also let know destination airport in Dublin. Again here versions differ - Slovak police says they did it already on Saturday, when the incident happened, Dublin airport claims they got the message only on Tuesday.

Three days after the flight, once Irish authorities got to know there is a missing explosive (from Slovak official sources), they sent a bomb disposal squad to poor unsuspecting passenger, cleaned two streets around him, and arrested him.

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BTW This was not the first time such incident happened. Five years ago similar thing happened at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4069785.stm

Also, not explosives, but similarly Japanese police lost planted drugs in an unknowing traveler’s luggage:

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/26/japanese-customs-pla.ht...

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[1] http://www.sme.sk/c/5179110/policajti-na-letisku-schovali-vy...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDX

I never travel with anything more than cabin approved luggage, no matter how long I go away from home.

There is the odd weird look when I pass customs with nothing but a shoulder bag for a 2 month stay (hey, they do have washing machines!) but usually not much trouble because of that.

If you let your bags out of your sight then anything could happen to them, you never know who could mess with your bags, some thrower or other person behind the scenes using you as a mule.

It happens, and it happens more often than you think. This is the first time though that a government is on the record as having done this.

What an absolutely unbelievable breach of trust. These people ought to be fired.

I do the same, just a backpack. Have customs agents ever given you crap for not having much luggage?

Yes, but only in Minneapolis and Miami.

Elsewhere maybe a remark and some incredulity but nothing beyond that.

The fact that 2 suitcases per passenger can now routinely run you hundreds of dollars when it used to be free is a credible incentive to travel light.

I also do this whenever possible. I've been told by the person handling checking in that I may face an enhanced screen or words to that effect but have always breezed through without any issue.

Edit: My experience is travelling from the UK to US and Europe and back.

Absolutely unbelievable. A massive abuse of trust on the part of the police forces.

Shouldn't we have agents trying to get through security with guns, explosives and anything else that's restricted, multiple times per day so we can measure how effective airport security is and improve it? Ideally these agents would not get on the plane, or what they are given to carry through could be disabled in some way.

Otherwise how do we know it works at all? How do you check that the screeners are doing their jobs properly?

"Otherwise how do we know it works at all?"

This may be cynical of me, but I suspect this is precisely why we don't do penetration testing regularly...

Funny scene a couple of days ago - I was taking the train from Canada to the USA, pre-clearing US border security before getting on the train. The gentleman in front of me had a pair of nail clippers in his carry-on, and was told he needed to put them in checked luggage to get on the train.

First of all, nail clippers. Really? sigh

Secondly, passengers carried their checked luggage past the security checkpoint themselves, out of sight of the security guys, and voluntarily placed their luggage on the checked luggage cart sitting essentially unattended. That gentleman, if he meant any harm, could have easily taken his nail clippers and gotten on the train with it and... well, I dunno what you would actually do with nail clippers on a train that's really so bad.

He might decide to fly the train into a building.

> could have easily taken his nail clippers and gotten on the train with it and... well, I dunno what you would actually do with nail clippers on a train that's really so bad.

Oh you know ... induce mass discomfort and panic by clipping everyone's nails just a little too close to the skin ;-)

Wow, I am surprised this guy didn't get tortured or anything. How is he supposed to convince a foreign country that the bombs discovered in his bag are not his?

"Slovak authorities admitted planting them in his luggage" - First they told the Irish police he had a bomb, then they told them that they were at fault. It is a good thing that the innocent traveller didn't get severely injured in the raid.

Why would slovac authorities want to test the security of Irish airport security?

I believe they were testing their own airport security, and it failed, resulting in the man getting through to Ireland with the planted explosives.

Finally a good reason not to leave your luggage unattended at the airport.

Stolen from another forum: "Is there not an 'Eicar' equivalent for testing airport security?"

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