MetaFilter posts tagged with TSA

Bruce Schneier's work isn't peer reviewed. He has no peers.

grouse — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:45:27 -0800

Is aviation security mostly for show? An essay by Bruce Schneier.

How to feign security in 93 easy pages

pla — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:17:23 -0800

The TSA has accidentally posted their SOP online. Not having learned proper redaction techniques after dozens of other companies and government agencies made the same mistake, the TSA posted their complete "Screening Management Standard Operating Procedures" manual online in PDF format. Included, you can find details about how they choose who to search, the limitations of the various scanners in use (metal detectors, x-ray, etc), and easily reproduced examples of badges and paperwork that earn you a free pass through security.

"We are supposed to notify a supervisor. You’re a supervisor, right?"

anastasiav — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:38:11 -0800

Do I have the right to refuse this search?

TSA agents took my son

cgs — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:59:45 -0800

Woman tries to go through metal detector at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson aiport with her infant son, only to have his pacifier set off the alarm. TSA did the only rational thing and took the woman's son

An Unclear Future

mattdidthat — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:41:18 -0800

Clear, the "security service" that allowed travellers to bypass TSA security lines, offered a Father's Day discount if you purchased a one-year membership by June 21. On June 23, Clear ceased operations. Sorry, no refunds.

Trolling the head of the TSA

ChasFile — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:23:31 -0800

Trolling the Head of the TSA: Bruce Schneier [previously], consummate voice of sanity on all issues of security, co-authors an article in The Atlantic [previously] demonstrating how weak and ultimately pointless most of the new security practices put in place at airports since 9/11 are by, among other things, boarding airplanes with large amounts of liquid, using fake boarding passes he printed off his computer, and wearing an "I <3 Hezbollah" t-shirt. TSA head Kip Hawley then responds on the TSA's blog. Schneier then responds to the response on his blog. Hawley then leaves a comment to that post. Schneier fires back again in his monthly newsletter. Quite an interesting and intelligent debate, despite both men humorously falling victim to the idioms of the medium and getting increasingly snarky with each passing post. [via this month's crypto-gram, a good read all the way around.]

The Things He Carried

chunking express — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:33:06 -0800

The Things He Carried. "Airport security in America is a sham—'security theater' designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease."

TSA security theater

grippycat — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:03:41 -0800

Two commercial pilots find themselves on the no-fly list. One pilot sues after having his flight privileges revoked, while the second pilot (and a five-year old sharing his name) note they can bypass the watchlist by checking in using their initials instead of their full names. TSA has also found themselves in the news this week for disrupting 40 flights and damaging 9 planes during an overzealous security check.

TSA gets Xray goggles. No, seriously.

allkindsoftime — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:27:54 -0800

Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports. Good news! No more testing. Time to roll these puppies out. It's OK though, seriously guys. See we're gonna blur the faces when we look at their sexual organs, so everything's cool. K? Prev.

I'll jack your gold-plated pen knife, bitch, and that's reality, you better lose you pre-9/11 mentality

nitsuj — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:08:21 -0800

Single-link YouTube: TSA Gangstaz - Belt Buckle Moneyclip (NSFW audio) [via]

Big Brother Is Watching You... Pack

dw — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:25:58 -0800

The TSA wants you to know, dear American, that if you don't pack your bags neatly, the terrorists have already won. This busiest Thanksgiving travel week ever, why not Simplifly? (Brian Williams tries to our methadone Jon Stewart)

Chattin' With Kip

Bovine Love — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:04:32 -0800

Conversation with Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator (Part 1) Part one of five, Bruce Schneier chats it up with Kip, TSA Administrator. The TSA and airport security have long been hot topics on Metafilter; here is a chance to read some hard questions put to the man himself and his answers.

TSA busts myths, too!

spec80 — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:23:05 -0800

Last week, a woman at DC's Reagan Airport was detained because of water in her son's sippy cup. In an unusual step, the TSA has posted their own Mythbusters site where they show the security footage and the official incident report. Here is BoingBoing's take on the video. And a security/security technology blogger posts about the larger lesson that people readily side against the TSA "because there's no accountability or transparency in the DHS."

How to crash an airplane by cheating at Tetris

jdfalk — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:19:26 -0800

This simple hack actually only crashes the in-flight entertainment system (perhaps this one?), but that's already enough to cause concern with the kind of people who comment anonymously on a blog for "security executives."

I'm certain that this vulnerability (like this vulnerability) will be taken seriously.

"TSOs have been trained to not touch the monkey during the screening process."

scrump — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:29:17 -0800

The TSA would like to help you travel with your service animal. As with any set of guidelines, sometimes people try to game the system.

Oh, I wish we had the image tag again...

bitter-girl.com — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 08:29:02 -0800

Bare naked travel? (Previously on MeFi: here, except now they're actually doing it, and here). The TSA wants to see you naked. Just don't paint "Kip Hawley Is An Idiot" on your torso in Pepto-Bismol before you go to the airport.

OMG LOOK PUPPIES!!!!eleventy!1!

clevershark — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:07:22 -0800

Meet the TSA's newest, cuddliest employees! Sure, the TSA could spend its time and money developing a training course that won't result in a stunning 91% rate of failure in detecting weapons in carry-on luggage, but how do you make cute pictures out of that?

"Kip Hawley is an Idiot"

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 07:14:19 -0800

"Kip Hawley is an Idiot". Careful what you say about the Director of the TSA when you're waiting to pass airport security.

Persecution by Paperwork

Dreama — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:53:40 -0800

Marshals: Innocent People Placed On 'Watch List' To Meet Quota "Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," says one federal Air Marshal. Why? Because a memo from management requires marshals to file one Surveillance Detection Report (SDR) per month, and failure to do so will negatively impact upon their annual raises, bonuses, awards and special assignments. Marshals deny fabricating stories wholesale, but claim to have resorted to creatively stretching the truth to turn benign acts into potential threats and the harm this may cause to people who have done nothing wrong seems irrelevant to the marshals and the TSA officials who created the rules.

All such matters will be taken seriously.

quonsar — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:13:44 -0800

Making any jokes or statements during the screening process may be grounds for both criminal and civil penalties.

Thread Thread

serafinapekkala — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 09:19:32 -0800

"This item has become very popular following the ban on use of scissors on aeroplanes." Relax, Officer, it's just a thread-cutter.

Fly in the Fast Lane

digaman — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 09:24:00 -0800

Tired of standing in line at the airport? Worried that you might share a name with a known terrorist or subversive on the TSA's mysterious no-fly lists? Relax. Get fingerprinted and/or iris scanned. And pay $79.95 a year to become a Registered Traveler, and fly Clear in the fast lane. (And note how quickly conceptual art projects become indistinguishable from reality.) Meanwhile, the Feds settle an ACLU lawsuit over the no-fly lists... while revealing no information about them. [Lists recently discussed here].

The Increasingly Unfriendly Skies

digaman — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:20:15 -0800

Is your name James Moore? If so, you may be a terrorist. Or at least the NSA thinks so, having added that name -- which also happens to be the name of the author of Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential -- to its mysteriously targeted and infamously mismanaged "No-Fly" list [previously discussed here.]

Stealing Osama's Identity

rzklkng — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:26:06 -0800

Security, the TSA, and the No-Fly List You would think that our National Security apparatus would be like the TV series "24", with the most ingenious and sophisticated technology available. You would be wrong. Disclaimer: TSA is not an ~~intelligent~~ intelligence agency. Here's a blurb from the resume of the designer(Kenneth Mack) of the application the airline industry uses for *PDF* managing their employee data and the cross-checking them with the no-fly list:

- Sr. Developer: Developed a program [for Goddard Technologies] that uses the "No-Fly List" Excel spreadsheet, provided by the FAA and the database of badged employees to permute the name combinations. It takes into consideration multiple first and middle names, with Soundex and the various "initial" combinations. This program reduced the time for comparison from 3 days to 10 minutes.

The scary yet interesting part of all of this is that the No-Fly List is nothing more than a password-protected spreadsheet (see this PDF). One would guess our Government's geeks would know that it's a bad idea to send email attachments containing social security numbers and dates of birth, unencrypted, over the internets, even if they might be terrorists.

Who caught Zacarias Moussaoui?

Kwantsar — Tue, 24 May 2005 06:38:26 -0800

Who caught Zacarias Moussaoui? Clancy Prevost smiles at the absurdity of his story. We are just a few miles down the road from the Eagan flight school where, one month before the September 11th attacks, he tried to teach Zacarias Moussaoui how to fly a Boeing 747.