The Truth about Airport security | On November 14, 2001, shortly after 9/11, I wrote an article in the online journal DefenseWatch (see “Airline Safety: Simple Steps for Better Security,” DefenseWatch, Nov. 14, 2001), proposing a way to establish airport and airline security quickly and inexpensively. I followed that article with several more addressing the issue (see ”Security, Common Sense and Gen. Joe Foss,” DefenseWatch, Feb, 20, 2002, “Another Enemy Within – Agency Turf Fights,”DefenseWatch, June 26, 2002, “Airport Security – An Update,” DefenseWatch, Nov. 20, 2002). Over the years, I have republished the essence of this article, just remind people of what we could have accomplished, while looking as the actuality of what we did accomplish – if you can call it that.
Back in 2001 I wrote that from the get-go, the problem we faced was fundamentally, profoundly simple. It really is that simple. Here is the seven-point program I suggested that would have accomplished everything necessary in about three months. National Security Agency Tasked with Targeting Adversaries' Computers for Attack Since Early 1997, According to Declassified Document. Washington, D.C., April 26, 2013 – Since at least 1997, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been responsible for developing ways to attack hostile computer networks as part of the growing field of Information Warfare (IW), according to a recently declassified internal NSA publication posted today by the non-governmental National Security Archive ("the Archive") at The George Washington University.
Declaring that "the future of warfare is warfare in cyberspace," a former NSA official describes the new activity as "sure to be a catalyst for major change" at the super-secret agency. The document is one of 98 items the Archive is posting today that provide wide-ranging background on the nature and scope of U.S. cyber activities. The NSA's new assignment as of 1997, known as Computer Network Attack (CNA), comprises "operations to disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy" information in target computers or networks, "or the computers and networks themselves," according to the NSA document. TSA removes body scanners criticized as too revealing.
The TSA had developed protocols to assure that screeners who saw imagery of passengers never saw the passengers themselves. Backscatter full-body scanners generated controversy Critics said images were too revealing, others cited potential health concernsTSA says it has met June 1 deadline to remove machines from airportsAirport full-body screening will use different technology Washington (CNN) -- The harshest critics labeled them "virtual strip searches. " Airport passenger screening that produced particularly realistic full-body images using backscatter technology. Others also expressed health concerns about low doses of radiation from the X-rays underpinning those scans.
Well, it's all over now as the Transportation Security Administration says it has met a June 1 deadline to remove all 250 backscatter machines from U.S. airports. Travelers will still go through other full-body scans that rely on a system that uses radio waves and produces less detailed body imaging. Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? Not until I walked with Bruce Schneier toward the mass of people unloading their laptops did it occur to me that it might not be possible for us to hang around unnoticed near Reagan National Airport’s security line. Much as upscale restaurants hang mug shots of local food writers in their kitchens, I realized, the Transportation Security Administration might post photographs of Schneier, a 48-year-old cryptographer and security technologist who is probably its most relentless critic.
In addition to writing books and articles, Schneier has a popular blog; a recent search for “TSA” in its archives elicited about 2,000 results, the vast majority of which refer to some aspect of the agency that he finds to be ineffective, invasive, incompetent, inexcusably costly, or all four. As we came by the checkpoint line, Schneier described one of these aspects: the ease with which people can pass through airport security with fake boarding passes.
The United States tried to do just that. Point: Secure Airports Ensure a Secure Nation: Points of View Reference Center Home. Point: Secure Airports Ensure a Secure Nation: Points of View Reference Center Home. Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? Airport Security & Body Scanners: An Overview: Points of View Reference Center Home.