TSA Opens Blog Site
The TSA have been the butt of jokes and the bane of airline passengers’ existence since the infamous Al Qaeda attack on 9/11 of 2001. I will admit that I don’t hold them in high regard. Actually, I am sure they think they’re doing a good thing, and I don’t have any hard feelings toward the individual TSA agents per se. I just tend to side with Bruce Schneier about the logic of the TSA rules. I understand that the terrorists used airplanes in the 9/11 attack. However, their success in commandeering the aircraft was more a function of a flaw in the standard operating procedured for dealing with hijack attempts than it was related to screening passengers.
So, now we all shuffle like cattle through airport checkpoints, bare foot and carrying a ziplock bag with cute little travel-sized versions of all of our personal hygiene products, and we’re supposed to feel more secure? First of all, Al Qaeda already ran this play. There are a million other methods of attack and potential targets. I don’t think we’re giving them proper credit for creativity or initative if we think they’re going to use the same plan again. Second, how do the TSA rules and security screening make us more secure? I can’t take a box cutter (works for me- I wasn’t planning on breaking down any packing materials on board the plane), but I can take a pen or pencil and stab someone with that. Nail clippers are a no-no, but I could file down or sharpen a credit card that could potentially cut someone and not raise any suspicions at the checkpoint. The items being banned and allowed seem arbitrary and capricious and do nothing to make me feel safer.
Add to that all of the stories of fake bombs or bomb materials making it through screening points when they are being tested and it doesn’t make me any happier about wasting an extra hour getting screened. For what? Coming through LAX on a trip, I was actually detained as a part of the random searches. They checked my passport, and went through my bags. I made it through just in time to catch my plane. Once on board, I realized that they had actually *missed* the dangerous ziplock of mini-toothpaste and trial-size shampoo. I had it in the ziplock, but forgot to take it out and “claim” it. Well, I sure am glad they stopped and took the extra 15 minutes to go through my stuff only to miss what they were looking for and let me through. Thankfully for them, and everyone on board my flight, my toothpaste really was toothpaste and my shampoo really was shampoo and I did not sneak through illicit chemicals that could be combined to blow a hole in the plane. Actually- I’m not a chemist and my name is not MacGyver. For all I know, you *can* blow up a plane by mixing toothpaste and shampoo- as long it is whitening toothpaste and dandruff-control shampoo. But the point is, I didn’t. And thankfully the fact that the TSA couldn’t even enforce their own screening rules did not result in an attack. I am sure my experience is not all that isolated. On any given day, how many banned items do you guess make it through a checkpoint?
Well, the TSA doesn’t like the negative feelings or bad reputation, so they have started a new blog site. They want our feedback and they want to work *with* us as partners in safe air travel. They had the audacity to name the blog Evolution of Security, somehow implying that what they do is evolving security in some way. The blog allows comments on the posts, and they are getting plenty of them. To be fair, they are asking for the good, the bad, and the ugly. They want to hear your gripes and complaints. The problem for me is the idea that they are going to address the gripes and complaints and fix things. For me, the whole thing is smoke and mirrors with no real security substance- “Security Theater” as coined by Bruce Schneier. The “solution” is to give up the illusion of security instilled by a lengthy and tedious screening process and devote our DHS and TSA resources to more legitimate security concerns.
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Tony Bradley
www.tonybradley.com
Essential. Computer. Security.