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stupid TSA tricks
22 October 2007 10:16http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/10/new_tsa_report.html
Summary: TSA employees have been approaching real actual travelers and asking them to accept something that looks like a bomb into their luggage, as a check on the functioning of the system.
Schneier brings up several good reasons why this is a bad idea, but misses what may arguably be the most significant (IMO).
Hint: does anyone remember that question that used to be asked at the airline counter: "has any person unknown to you given you an item to carry with you?" We've been trying to train people for years to report this sort of thing.
Let's suppose that this program becomes widely known. This negates the effects of the above-noted training.
How long do you suppose that it would be before we get a report of a plane being taken out by a bomb that was given to someone to carry...who believed that (a) the person who gave it to them was a TSA employee and (b) the bomb was a convincing fake?
(One of the commenters on the post says essentially that it's silly to suppose that the TSA would not authenticate their employees (that is, present convincing evidence that the employee is genuine before asking the passenger to accept a fake bomb). That misses the point, though...because the passengers won't know what the procedure is supposed to be...and recent events have been teaching civilians that the authorities can and will pop up in all sorts of unexpected ways and with unusual requests.)
Summary: TSA employees have been approaching real actual travelers and asking them to accept something that looks like a bomb into their luggage, as a check on the functioning of the system.
Schneier brings up several good reasons why this is a bad idea, but misses what may arguably be the most significant (IMO).
Hint: does anyone remember that question that used to be asked at the airline counter: "has any person unknown to you given you an item to carry with you?" We've been trying to train people for years to report this sort of thing.
Let's suppose that this program becomes widely known. This negates the effects of the above-noted training.
How long do you suppose that it would be before we get a report of a plane being taken out by a bomb that was given to someone to carry...who believed that (a) the person who gave it to them was a TSA employee and (b) the bomb was a convincing fake?
(One of the commenters on the post says essentially that it's silly to suppose that the TSA would not authenticate their employees (that is, present convincing evidence that the employee is genuine before asking the passenger to accept a fake bomb). That misses the point, though...because the passengers won't know what the procedure is supposed to be...and recent events have been teaching civilians that the authorities can and will pop up in all sorts of unexpected ways and with unusual requests.)
