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Comment by magicalhippo | Hacker News Reader

I was at a major airport going home, and it was absolute chaos. Turned out they had received a bomb threat, and so security was super stringent.

Well, I've never been so scared before.

The massive security queue meant the entry hall was packed with people, and anyone could walk into there straight from the parking lot with 5-6 huge, heavy suitcases on a trolley without raising any suspicion.

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Good example of how security is counterintuitive. Another one from real life is how bank robbers often create misleading or blocking maneuvers such as setting a truck on fire, blocking road access to helicopter pads etc. But the epitome of “security paranoia paradox” must surely be military dictatorships, where powers you create to protect you can eventually overpower you.

As a tangent, it feels like there are close analogies to computer security for these cases.

You got any news reports on those bank robberies, they sound pretty wild!

In the most famous robbery[1] here in Norway they did exactly that, had a truck block the ramp of the city's primary police station parking lot, located in the basement of the station, and then set it on fire. They also threw tear gas canisters at the main entrance.

This significantly hampered the police response to the robbery.

They made a film about the robbery[2], which was quite well received.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOKAS_robbery

[2]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1337366/

When I was in Bangalore in 2018 they wouldn't even allow anyone into the entry hall without a boarding pass and passport. Security was more tight back then compared to how you describe it now.

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