Security quotes of the week [LWN.net]

What "Girls Around Me" does is make clear just how useless Facebook's security settings are. In theory if you know what you're doing you can disclose your personal information to Facebook and prevent FB from sharing it with strangers. But in practice ordinary people are not all Bruce Schneier. Ordinary people with Facebook accounts tend to over-share personal information because our social instincts encourage us to share information with everyone we can see, and to discount abstractions (such as the possibility that software bots thousands of miles away might be harvesting the photographs and information we put online in order to better target advertisements at us—or worse).

-- Charlie Stross

He wants us to trust that a 400-ml bottle of liquid is dangerous, but transferring it to four 100-ml bottles magically makes it safe. He wants us to trust that the butter knives given to first-class passengers are nevertheless too dangerous to be taken through a security checkpoint. He wants us to trust the no-fly list: 21,000 people so dangerous they’re not allowed to fly, yet so innocent they can’t be arrested. He wants us to trust that the deployment of expensive full-body scanners has nothing to do with the fact that the former secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, lobbies for one of the companies that makes them. He wants us to trust that there’s a reason to confiscate a cupcake (Las Vegas), a 3-inch plastic toy gun (London Gatwick), a purse with an embroidered gun on it (Norfolk, VA), a T-shirt with a picture of a gun on it (London Heathrow) and a plastic lightsaber that’s really a flashlight with a long cone on top (Dallas/Fort Worth).

-- Bruce Schneier continues his debate with former TSA administrator Kip Hawley

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Security quotes of the week

Posted Apr 13, 2012 15:46 UTC (Fri) by steffen780 (guest, #68142) [Link] (6 responses)

I can top the one about the bottles. At London Stansted I was forced to throw away an aftershave (85 or 100ml). They have a rule that now requires these bottles to be in a resealable (not water-tight, just a simple zip-lock is fine) transparent plastic bag. So i got a green-ish transparent plastic bag, sealed it with tape, and packed a roll of tape in case they decided to be anal about it. But apparently that wasn't good enough, you have to use the 20*20cm² plastic bags that are "conveniently" sold before the theatre checkpoints (officially known as "security checkpoint").

Because if the bag is slightly green you can use it to make explosive materials, which would not be possible if it is fully transparent. Of course a bag sealed with tape is also clearly a terrorist tool, whilst a bag "sealed" with a ziplock makes it completely impossible to do evil things.

Security quotes of the week

Posted Apr 13, 2012 16:19 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (5 responses)

My beat up old backpack has a carbon plastic compartment at the base. It has a nice property - it confuses the X-ray scanners (no idea why).

So in it I happily carry:
1) Matches
2) Scissors
3) Screwdriver
4) k-lock chain

No problems at all, in more than 20 flights.

The last time I've even (accidentally) carried a small knife. Again, no problems.

Security quotes of the week

Posted Apr 14, 2012 12:52 UTC (Sat) by steffen780 (guest, #68142) [Link] (4 responses)

I should get one of those. Don't really feel like partaking in the subsidy of toiletries manufacturers and the huge waste of packaging materials and transport resource usage by buying or using small packages. The craziest thing about my experience was that after clearing the theatre checkpoint one of the first things I saw was "special offers" on toiletries. Apparently terrorists could not possibly place materials in the supply chain of one of the dozens of shops that are airside.

Security quotes of the week

Posted Apr 16, 2012 7:59 UTC (Mon) by jezuch (subscriber, #52988) [Link] (1 responses)

> The craziest thing about my experience was that after clearing the theatre checkpoint one of the first things I saw was "special offers" on toiletries. Apparently terrorists could not possibly place materials in the supply chain of one of the dozens of shops that are airside.

So it's like in that "Airplane!" movie, where could conveniently buy a bomb at the airport?

Life imitates art... again.

Security quotes of the week

Posted Apr 16, 2012 9:49 UTC (Mon) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

Just you wait. They'll soon start replacing pilots with inflatable dummies. After all, dummies can't go crazy ( http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2012/03/jetblue-f... ).

Security quotes of the week

Posted Apr 16, 2012 8:18 UTC (Mon) by spaetz (guest, #32870) [Link] (1 responses)

> Apparently terrorists could not possibly place materials in the supply chain of one of the dozens of shops that are airside.

Frankfurt Airport has 75,000 employees working inside in the retail area (http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/content/frankfurt_airpor...), and I heard most of them get only a cursory checking when entering the area. So that would likely be the easiest way to bring in dangerous stuff...

If you bring a small kid you can conveniently bring 500ml bottles with you anyway, no problem, so there is no need for that.

Security quotes of the week

Posted Apr 16, 2012 10:20 UTC (Mon) by ekj (guest, #1524) [Link]

If you want examples of pointless security-theatre, I've got a even worse example:

On of the many "security features" is the demand that passengers have a valid boarding-card in order to pass the security-checkpoint and enter the departure-area.

If, however, you're travelling with hand-luggage-only you can (here in Norway anyway) proceed directly to the gate without checking in. In this case you can either have a printed ticket, and present that at the security-checkpoint,

OR,

If you order the ticket online (90%+ of the domestic flights are booked that way) you bring nothing at all, other than the credit-card you used to book the flight.

That is right; to enter certain areas of the airport you need to either have a valid boarding-pass, or be willing to say: "I travel paperless, I ordered the ticket online."

It seems batshit insane to assume that terrorists would not be willing to lie. Yet that's the reality of it.

Meanwhile, innocent passengers are inconvenienced and costs are incurred. For example the policy prevents you from following a young child travelling alone to the gate, this job is now handled by an airline-employee.