TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone
theverge.com
theverge.com
Is "verbally assist" a new euphemism for "yell at"?
I somewhat recently had a TSA agent bark conflicting instructions at me: "Please remove all metal and electronics before the metal detector." Okay, simple enough. But when I started executing her directive, "you can leave your watch on." "It's a smart watch — it's an electronic with metal." She didn't seem to understand that.
Despite the snark, precheck is worth the money if you're a regular domestic traveler as are the trusted traveler programs [1] if you travel abroad. Some airlines seem to flag a trusted traveler as precheck although it's not terribly consistent, so I wouldn't rely on that.
Absolutely worth it -- albeit both the US and Canadian governments basically now know every single detail of my life, including biometrics of fingerprints and rental scans.
For someone that essentially travels by air every few months for work (and sometimes pleasure) the ability to spend 1 minute in security means I get to spend my time on things that matter.
And its nice when I go back to Canada to just go through a machine; I don't see why I need to talk to anyone when I'm going home to my country of citizenship.
On the other side of the border, going to immigration into the States, the border people will usually be much more friendly and relaxed so thats also a plus.
It may be just me with a European perspective, but from where I am sitting that is completely ridiculous.
Honestly, and I ask with sincerity as the answer is important to me, does that not bear at least a little upon your conscience?
However, I don't think a laptop and an iPad will fit into one bin without overlapping each other.
So now we are at probably four bins per person including their carry-on bag as a "bin." This is really ridiculous and will lead to even longer, more chaotic lines.
I generally travel with my CPAP machine also so it is quite an ordeal to get through security:
• work laptop
• personal laptop
• iPad
• CPAP machine (outside of carrying case)
• CPAP carrying case
• shoes and jacket
• backpack
• and often my carry-on luggageI have been pulled aside once just so they could swab it, but my CPAP is mostly ignored by the TSA. I'd imagine they see enough gray ResMed bags that as long as it get scanned, it's nothing special.
Not a problem in US, the X-ray devices show the operator a view X, Y and Z axis so sandwich isn't a problem. And if there is an uncertainty, it can be checked manually. A separate bin per bigger device would increase the queue length.
That would still be a problem. A side shot of the sandwich doesn't fix the fact that there's no good top shot.
Also, if they do need separate bins for all of these items, they'll run out of bins faster, which would be a pain for the TSA employees. I expect that if interpreting the rule strictly creates a hassle for the TSA employees (who have to cart the bins around), they won't take the strict approach.
The current case, in every airport I've traversed, was each laptop in a separate bin.
I believe I stumbled through an airport "piloting" this program (BOS) as we had to remove tablets, too. We were not told "everything larger than a phone", we were told "laptops and tablets" — all in separate bins. It took five bins to get through.
"Piloting" new security regulations, to the passenger, appears as if TSA has no idea what their own rules are. Every airport I visit seems to have its own inconsistent idea as to what I need to take off, what needs to go in a bin, etc.
In my experience, the baggage X-ray is the bottleneck at the checkpoint; I don't see how this is going to help.
Also, does this include cameras? Who's the judge as to whether a camera is larger than a cell phone? (And just what I want, to advertise even more loudly the valuables I'm traveling with.)
Would definitely need some infrastructure changes in the airports themselves, which is probably a pretty big negative.
But lately I've been deterred by all this TSA crap and the political 'developments'. I just no longer feel comfortable about traveling there. Don't get me wrong, my home country is far from peachy. But everything I read about US these days screams - don't come here. I'm sure their tourism industry wont fall apart because of one person, but I'm also pretty sure I'm not the only one that feels like this.
Seems like I'll just go somewhere warm for the winter to chill out (Canary Islands, anyone?)
I'm not saying that people should skip coming to the US because of all of this, but it is a ridiculous process, especially the separation from your belongings. I once thought a man took my backpack - it was an identical model - and I yelled for about 30 seconds until I saw my bag come out of the machine. Nobody paid attention.
Speak to any foreigner that has had prolonged contact with US immigration/border agencies (particularly if they are from a poorer country - doubly so if it's a muslim country) and you will hear plenty of stories like that.
I have many foreign friends (and a few americans) who have either left already, or are planning to. This is all highly educated, skilled people - academics, inventors, potential company founders, etc - the kind that the US probably should aspire to keep.
I don't think the US tourism industry or economy will fall apart just because of you or I. That being said, it feels like at this rate, US hegemony might look very different a decade or two from now. Fewer brilliant grad students and company founders coming to the US in 2017 will probably be felt in 2027.
Makes sense... we shouldn't discriminate laptops at the security lines!
All large electronics in separate bins!
I'm surprised that he didn't get required to throw them out. (They contain liquid)
On the other hand, people like you hold up the line for everyone.
At least they didn't see the supplement powder I packed in their own separate plastic baggies :)
At many airports, they're not trying very hard - every time I ask for an opt out, they roll their eyes and drag their feet getting me checked out. Sometimes they give me verbal shit for it - which is part of the fubar-ness of the system, and is exactly their fault.
Having said that, I just try to get through with a minimum of interaction.
Yes, that's because they think -- perhaps wrongly, but not entirely without justification -- that you are opting out in order to make some political statement or because you're frustrated with the process and are trying to take it out on them.
I don't think you have a full appreciate for how mind-numbing and soul-crushing a job being a front-line TSA agent can be.
I can't think of any other organization that evokes that near-rage quite as fast or as strong. Even Immigration doesn't seem as hateful.
There seems to be nobody willing to push back against the idiocy that is the TSA. In paying their salaries we are almost literally paying for rope to hang ourselves. If we can't eliminate or cut back programs this dumb and this destructive, is there any hope for technological progress at all? Or are all efforts to improve the human condition similarly doomed to be hamstrung by rent-seekers and grandstanders and paranoid muckrakers?
Every time I have to stand in that line I get a little bit more furious that we can't get rid of these idiots and their counterproductive procedures and just walk over to the gate and get on a plane like a civilized person.
By placing the items onto a tray, the orientation of the device is more likely to be consistent and not obscured by other objects in the line of sight of the scanner, making algorithmic object recognition easier when a 2D scanner is used or if the bag contained items that make the data harder to process.
Imagine if your goal was to get a weapon through security, what would you do?
- Enclose it in a fluid or gel-filled case that appeared similar to a rechargeable battery pack on the scanner.
- Enclose it in an appropriately sized shielded sub-enclosure of a common device, so that it appeared similar to the unaltered device on the scanner.
For some reason laptops were identified as a likely device for this sort of use-case, hence the ban on laptops for flights originating from some places.
So after the ban the adversaries likely decided to try using a boombox or a SLR camera to house a weapon, and maybe even tried an electronic drum pad or other less common device.
Consider what kind of information the scanner obtains about the objects being scanned. Some is 2D but newer ones area increasingly 3D. So you have a 3D capture of the various relative densities and thicknesses of materials used to construct a device. Chances are machine learning algorithms are very good at determining which scan is an unaltered electronic device and which has been altered (additional wires, components, materials included).
It's also necessary to train the system, so asking travelers to place their digicams, drum pads, etc., in a separate bin allows the scans to be used as training data for unaltered device characteristics, and help officials learn how to train the algorithms to detect subtle modification or alteration of devices.
Chances are the same kind of highly advanced machine learning is being applied to the live video of passengers lining up for screening, with face, vital sign, and body carriage recognition algorithms designed to detect anxiety, deception, etc. For example, if you are rocking back and forth with a clenched chin and elevated heart rate that might be a small data point which (if combined with a laptop that has a >10% probability of having been altered) might result in a human screening and pat down.
When filmed at high frame rate, heart beats are detectable via blood vessel coloration changes. Animals (like humans) are very easy to analyze this way with the right hardware and algorithms.
With explosives, I've always thought an internal smuggle would work the best. I mean, you're going to suicide anyway, so why not stick C4 up your ass? Or if you're really serious, have some surgically installed into you.
One threat would be a small shaped charge to open the cabin, but that seems very unlikely. Last but not least, the WMD threat of biological weapon, 12 Monkeys style, which is a) not specific to planes and b) impossible to guard against, once the weapon is lost.
The airport screening stuff has been a fiasco that is far more political and psychological than based on actual risk reduction, and the additional cost and time it takes to go through security has cost the economy billions in lost productivity.
I think that the big target at present is actually explosives. I think that C4 resembles the contents of a typical LiIon cell when viewed on a scanner, or could be made to appear quite similar if prepared by someone moderately skilled who had access to (or knowledge of) the scanner and the physics behind it.
Your point about a subway is interesting because we've seen no attacks on subways in the US since 9/11 and even a failed, low-budget attack would result in massive subway line closures and military presence in the subway for months, making it an effective fear-creation attack that would cost a city hundreds of millions of dollars, and potentially much more in lost productivity and mental anguish.
I think the reason we haven't seen those attacks is because so few people would actually want to do them. A can of gas brought into a subway car in a backpack and ignited while the door was closed, combined with an armed shooter using a handgun would cost < $500 and would easily result in widespread closures. If two individuals did this same attack on two separate lines on the same morning, the financial damage would multiply substantially, even if nobody was killed. Suddenly there would be TSA scanners in all subway entries and it would take an extra few hours to ride a few stops.
But on a plane, even a small explosive charge can take the aircraft out of the sky, so I think there is still motive for attackers to try this vector, but if the goal is to make airplanes crash it would be far more effective to use a high powered rifle near an airport and actually shoot at the aircraft. Some airports offer geographical features where this attack would be particularly effective.
That we haven't seen anyone do this also suggests strongly that there is virtually nobody who wants to harm American citizens living in the US, or perhaps that all those who do have extremely grandiose ideas for attacks that are very unlikely to succeed.
The 9/11 attacks were a brilliant way to weaponize aircraft, but after that was used once it becomes a lot harder to use it again. My guess is that if there ever is another large attack it will be something completely different. The first WTC bombing failed, but (similar to 9/11) relied on a very open loophole (fertilizer + van + parking garage under skyscraper). So I think authorities should be focusing on identifying the attack vectors that we are still vulnerable to that haven't been tried.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/17/pres...
0: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/06/politics/house-homeland-securi...
That is precisely what happened in the Brussels bombing. The Manchester bombing also happened at the general entrance of the arena, not inside.
Sure security is bad in other countries. I've had to remove everything from my bag in several airports, but America is still somehow the worst in spite of that. Fuck the TSA. When I do leave the US, I take a train to Canada and fly from there. Their security is mostly the same, but at least I feel like I can't complain since it's not my country.