TSA Doesn’t Care That Its Luggage Locks Have Been Hacked
theintercept.com
theintercept.com
While traveling through a state, one is supposed to be protected by FOPA [0]. An uncharitable (technically correct but against the spirit) reading of the law is used by New Jersey and New York to harass gun owners, as in this case and in other more egregious cases.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_Owners_Protection_Act
To your first question, I think it's fair to say that both NJ and NYC (and because of NYC, NY to a lesser extent) are generally perceived as being hostile towards firearms and general weapons ownership. If I were to predict states that restricted possession of an inoperable or antique firearm, NJ and NY would be at the top of my list, in that order.
To your second question, the appearance of the object has no bearing on it's legal status as a firearm (laws prohibiting look-alike objects notwithstanding). A pistol frame or lower receiver, incapable of being anything but a paperweight without all the other parts, is a firearm for legal purposes and would get one busted in the same manner as if it were a completely operational firearm.
Weapons laws are nuanced, pedantic, and frustrating. Frequently, they make no rational sense.
A few years ago, Greg Revell had a layover in New Jersey and bad weather caused his flight to be delayed. He stayed in a hotel, and New Jersey wound up arresting him and confiscating his firearm which was illegal in the state.
He argued that he was still traveling; New Jersey said he wasn't. He took it to court and won.
tl;dr Traveling through a state with a firearm is legal, but law enforcement can (apparently) still harress you even if you are obeying the law.
I was watching a podcast a while back on some guys about securing baggage, it also may have been a gunnit podcast where one of the guys did this, and he registered his credit card as a firearm with the trust. All of the requirements for a firearm can also apply to a credit card (basically it has a serial), so he was able to register his "firearm" with his trust and take it through using the process for checking an actual firearm.
This is the Gunnit Live podcast from some of the mods and others that are regulars on /r/guns
If enough people abuse this, I expect they'll start requiring those items to be firearm-related too.
The outrage at this "spectacular failure" feels a little insincere. You want to convince me the government can't keep sensitive data secure, the OPM hack is closer to the mark.
Ultimately it's pretty pointless, since your luggage can simply be stolen, or hacked open with a knife.
I've always treated the locks as part of the security theatre. Utter nonsense that probably got someone promoted because it sounded good. If someone at TSA said, "Hey we need to do something, anything, just so we look like we're doing something," then pointless toy locks are not all that damaging compared to other possible "somethings" they could have stuck us with.
The TSA truly needs to go.
Plus stealing from luggage is a major source of income for TSA employees, they are caught every few months but they keep doing it - so for every one caught you know there are hundreds not caught and management knows this.
https://google.com/search?q=tsa+stealing
Remember how corrupt TSA employees are the next time you see a story on the news about how corrupt officials in another country are...
I feel that the people that would exploit the 3D key files now floating around the Internet could achieve almost the same thing anyways.
I don't think any sufficiently logical person ever thought that a TSA lock was secure.
i never use luggage locks, i also keep my most valuable items in my carryon rather than my checked bags.
the locks are useless. easily cut, easily opened using tools, TSA still had access, now other people have access by copying the TSA keys.
if someone wanted to break into your luggage, they would have with or without the key.
i have had hard shell luggage cracked open by just terrible handling, i once had a lock/zipper got ripped off when it snagged somewhere.
i pack my luggage in a certain way and utilize tape in certain areas to know if someone was rummaging through it at the airport.
there is no security/privacy for your luggage at the airport
However, I found the article dubious. The only source for Mike England's alleged response is an email to _The Intercept_. While I am not calling the author a liar, I am skeptical that the response was placed in context.
> Clarification: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that hackers had broken into Travel Sentry’s internal website.
This is a particularly egregious error in reporting and suggests, to me, very sloppy reporting. So, without seeing the actual content and context of the email, including perhaps, the email which prompted the response, I am reserving judgment as to whether or not what has been reported is true to what the TSA actually meant.
It certainly wouldn't surprise me to hear the TSA responded in that way, but that doesn't mean that's what's actually happened.
This is the only time that I've ever considered the TSA locks to be useful for anything at all.
1. The TSA is invasive security theater operated on the principle that the most effective placebos are those with tangible side effects, namely body scanners and palpable tension at ultra-vulnerable (targets in and of themselves) security checkpoints.
2. The TSA is a country-scale jobs program for poor, unskilled, and unemployable people who might otherwise join disruptive political groups that promise more resource redistribution.
I think the first two points are reasonable if not explicitly provable, but my third point goes off the reservation a bit:
3. The TSA-friendly luggage locks are one of many overt acts of submission that the members of the public undertake in order to travel with speed; there is no incentive for the locks to actually work or be secure, as their primary purpose is to symbolize obeisance. I imagine this may be the case because the TSA-friendly luggage locks are jokes to begin with, as anyone with a common file, rudimentary lockpicking skill, or bolt cutter could pop them open in mere moments... not to mention the misbegotten troglodytes who actually have the master keys and help themselves whenever it suits them.
This is a pretty mind blowing perspective.
What is mind-blowing, to me, is that the program provides no service. FDR's programs did, and we still benefit from those programs today (exhibit A: national parks).
If it was some work program to prevent revolt, it fails at that just as hard as it does at securing the skies.
This is just mind blowing to use your words.
Research who Michael Chertoff is and his role in the Bush administration. Who do you suppose conveniently owns the corporations that manufacture the rapey scanners and other equipment that had to be procured for the security matinee?
Surely this doesn't require a 3D printer. The right key blank and a set of needle files should do the trick, or should be able modify an off the shelf key.
I suppose saying it can be done with a 3D printer makes it all seem more dramatic.