Slashdot Mirror
Is Your Laptop At Risk While Traveling?
Editorgirl35 writes "Here's an interesting story on DesignNews.com
With last week's announcement that the British government thwarted an alleged terrorist attack planned for flights from the U.K. to the U.S., news that travelers are required to check their laptops as baggage on some flights has raised a new level of panic as they try to figure out the best way to protect their laptops."
Wow, thats really safe..
Some laptops ( and most pdas ) can turn them selves on at a predetermined time.. Just estimate the time for maximum impact, laptop turns on and detonates the 'extra' battery that is made up of C4.. now you have a nice big hole in the bottom of the plane..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
would it be a terrorist attack?
I'd rather take 10 minutes for the baggage screeners to give a laptop a "full cavity serch" than to be without a laptop on an international flight.
That's right, you're able to take them onboard the plane again. Baggage advice for UK passengers.
Only nudists will be allowed to fly!
"Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash." Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Robert A. Heinlein
Pelican Cases have a good reputation, but they don't look as chick as the Halliburton. LowePro also makes some hard cases for cameras, but they don't take a computer (yet, I am sure it will very soon); they are a hardcase and a matching bag inside it.
The reality is that you don't want attention on your bag, as it might be stolen. I just recommended a person
to take the Styrofoam that came with the laptop to get to Heathrow. At least the laptop arrived in a working
condition.
I think the optimal solution is to find something that looks like regular luggage. Perhaps buying a cheap, beaten up luggage bag (garage sale?) to put the computer inside. Use duct tape and dirt for extra effect, and geek chicness.
The ban was lifted already. As it had to be. Business travellers routinely carry laptop computers with confidential client information on them, they would be negligent if they checked them into the current baggage handling system. Forget about the laptop being damaged since it is possible to package it safely, but the possibility of lost client data would be too high of a risk.
While a permanent laptop ban would have a serious impact on certain types of businesses and travellers, it would have an even more serious impact on the airlines when their primary client base was forced to use charter aircraft.
People should be more concerned about the long lines being created by all the security. There is nothing stopping terrorists from taking out all the people standing around waiting to get through security. High concentration of people in one area == prime oportunity.
http://www.freewareppc.com/games/nethack.shtml
Fortunately I don't travel by air very often. And, as has been pointed out by others, the laptop ban has been lifted (wealthier, more powerful people than I have likely already informed the appropriate scaremongers what a losing proposition this was). Even so, there's no way I'm putting a laptop through checked baggage. Luggage gets lost. Luggage gets tossed around very roughly. And items are known to go "missing" from luggage.
No. Not my laptop. It stays with me, or it stays home.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
There's no way I would check a laptop due to the potential for physical damage. I've never tried that, but I had the experience almost a decade ago of sitting on an airplane in Atlanta on the return trip from a music tour to Europe. We had to check larger instruments (including my saxophone) given the amount of other stuff we needed. The baggage handlers were doing things like opening cases and playing instruments while we watched, in horror, out the window. Of course, they were not particularly careful in handling the luggage either, and nearly everyone had damage to get repaired when we made it home. I was lucky enough to escape with only a $30 repair for a bent key rod. Most laptops anymore are fairly rugged, but even if reasonably well-packed (knowing good and well that you'll probably have to unpack your bag for security screening), I cannot see most laptops surviving that kind of handling.
I used to do a lot of travel for work, lugging product samples all over the world.
I always travel with carry-on only. Since 9-11, I won't even bother trying to bring samples.
The airport experience is simply the worst part of traveling.
Pick a carrier any carrier (UPS, FedEX, DHL, etc.) and ship what you need to your hotel.
As long as you pack it well (and insure it, of course) it will be waiting for you in your room when you arrive.
Trust me, it seems like a lot of extra trouble at first, but its worth it.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
Please arrive at your gate 10 hours early so that our one certified laptop cavity searcher can accomodate everyone...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I fly quite a bit in Canada and would never check my laptop, iPod, digital camera or anything else valuable as I would be afraid of theft more than damage. I've never had a theft, but I have heard horror stories from people, mainly international travelers, that have returned home only to find a video camera, liquor, jewelery or some other item stolen from checked luggage.
I do have a friend that works on the ramp, as it's called, stowing and retrieving bags from aircraft. He told me that theft isn't a problem domestically because they're watched so carefully with video cameras and security, but most importantly they just don't have the time or opportunity to pull someone's bag aside and rifle through it. He said international flights are a different story as bags are checked hours before the flight actually leaves, but he still doesn't think it's a big problem. I won't take my chances though and will continue to carry my digital/video camera and laptop onboard.
no airline is going to accept any liability on electronic products like iPods, laptops and cameras because they know people would just use them as a cash cow to get upgraded hardware.
No airline is going to accept any liability on electronic products like iPods, laptops and cameras because they know they do not handle baggage carefully and it would cost them a fortune.
Once in Honolulu a plane full of passengers at the gate (including myself) watched an entire cart full of luggage sit through one of the worst rain storms I have ever seen. A couple of workers were watching it. You might think that it would be a minor problem solved by drying your clothes out when you got to your hotel. Not true. Everything was ruined. Books, smaller electronics that had been packed, and even our clothes. We had a couple of red garmets that hadn't be washed and they soaked our clothes with red dye.
The airline didn't give a shit and wouldn't help us- they said TSA handles all baggage problems now. Well, you can imagine how well TSA (a government agency) handles this. It is just like if something breaks while a professional mover is moving your stuff. On paper you are covered, but in reality they make it so incredibly difficult to file a claim and prove damage that it realistically isn't even possible.
So if you wanted to make the trip between say Chicago and Amsterdam how exactly would you go about it besides flying and do so in a timely matter? You might be happy never seeing anywhere but the continent you live on but most people don't have your same mindset.
Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
You aren't paranoid if they really are out to get you...or your stuff:
TSA Under Fire for Rising Theft by Baggage Screeners
"It's a huge security threat," said aviation industry consultant Michael Boyd. "If we've got the kind of people who would steal things out of bags, we're not sure if we have people on the job who will put things into bags. And obviously we don't have enough scrutiny of the bags once they're checked. It's huge."
But I really feel the need to ask this question, and hope someone out there in /. might work for the TSA or other security company, and/or hardware manufacturing, and might give a good answer to this question.
... thank you Dan Rathers). America can't always be 100% secure, and I think most /. readers are intelligent enough to know that when there's a will, there's always going to be a way. Does anybody honestly think we can keep every port of entry secure? If you truly do, do some reading on the Akwesasne reservation.
The parent poster mentioned sneaking C4 in a laptop battery. I was wondering the same thing about a hard drive. When you think about it, both are small, but certainly have enough volume to put explosives inside of the casing that would cause a very significant detonation onboard an airplane. And would screeners really see that on their scanners? I'd imagine that to the lazy eye, it would just be another object like any other inside a laptop. I doubt most screeners would be particular about looking for the platters inside a hard drive, let alone know that a hard drive is a necessary part of a laptop. I'm sure that if you were to hand these explosive laptops to 20 terrorists, at least one would get through, and it only takes one. I've gone on a number of domestic and international flights, and the laptop is a carry-on object. I've never seen any bomb-sniffing dogs sniff my carry-on luggage, so I think the TSA are the only checkpoint for an attack such as this.
Now, I've never seen all of what those modern x-ray scanners are able to detect, so if there's anybody with knowledge on the subject, I'd sure appreciate an explination of whether or not this is feasable.
Oh, and for anybody who wants to try and accuse me of aiding terrorists, I get my information from the six-o'clock news. They give me all these great ideas each and every day on how to cause devistation to America (blow up the Hoover Dam, San Fransisco bridge, Alaska Oil pipeline, the Lincoln tunnel
As someone who gets to Latin America every once in a while (thus the name...), I would NEVER check my laptop, electronics, or ANYTHING of value in my baggage. NEVER.
Theft occurs often enough in the U.S. to make me at the very least give serious pause... in Latin America? In Argentina, for example, a country where you have almost no hope of receiving anything more than a disposable camera in the mail, there is NO way I would entrust my laptop to their baggage handlers, not to mention my camera, iPod, etc.
It looks like the security is being toned down a little bit now, and I hope and pray it stays at the present level.
I would also appreciate it if people would stop planning to blow up airplanes - can y'all just knock that off, please? Thanks, guys.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Not all Muslims are terrorists, but nearly all terrorists are Muslims.
g anisations.
Sure, and everyone eating Sauerkraut and wearing Lederhosen must be a German, if you see someone wearing a ten-gallon hat and chew chewing gum it must be an American, Asian in school uniform an naked? It's definitely a Japanese.
To adjust your splendid world view, here's some food for thought http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_or
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
instead of:
With last week's announcement that the British government thwarted an alleged terrorist attack planned for flights from the U.K. to the U.S
With last week's announcement that the British government allegedly thwarted a terrorist attack planned for flights from the U.K. to the U.S
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Terrorists being Muslims is just the current fad. In the '80s, the terrorists were communist revolutionaries.
Furthermore, the terrorists aren't idiots. All an Arabic terrorist would have to do to get around such a ban would be to wear jeans, work on their accent, use hair dye to lighten their hair a bit, and make out that they've been to a tanning salon.
"Software is too expensive to build cheaply"
Because everyone knows the IRA are just really big fuzzy bunnies.
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
Oh and flashback to last century anyone?
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
Idiotic. Then all the terrorists just give up? There are plenty of Muslims who don't look like your stereotypical Arab. And there are plenty of Middle Eastern Jews and Christians who could supply ID, or have it stolen from them. There are plenty of US citizens who are Muslim, it would be interesting to try to get a ban on their travelling through court. Not to mention the huge backlash the US would suffer.
Think of it like spam. A couple of years ago, you were getting lots of spam with the word "Viagra" in it. Simple. Filter out all messages with the word "Viagra". Two weeks later, you start to get spam about "V1agra", "V;agra", "Viiagra"....
I flew back from Europe on August 10/11 (Athens to NYC via Prague), and I had to check my laptop bag, since we were only allowed our wallet, passport, and boarding pass with us on the plane. I arrived at my departure airport blissfully unaware of the situation and carrying my iBook stuffed into a flimzy laptop bag (no safer-than-the-plane's-black-box Halliburton case). Even so, the machine survived the trip as checked baggage without any damage. Damage, however, was not the biggest worry for me -- it was loss and theft. As anyone who as ever travelled and changed planes knows, bags get lost all the time and valuables get stolen (which is why most people put them into their carry-ons). I had my ipod, digital camera, and computer in one case, which the airport agent kindly wrapped in security tape before checking. All the same, the bag broadcast the fact that it contained a computer, and baggage handlers don't get paid enough to be honest. When I got to New York (JFK), it was the only bag that did not make it through, although it was not stolen. (Perhaps, with a case as expensive as the one in TFA, perhaps it may have been stolen, since it absolutely screms "Here be valuables!" Fortunately for me, it turned out that the bag was stopped and searched, so it did not make it onto the plane. The airline found it and got it back to me within days, but judging from the massive line of angry people at the desk -- and the fact that many of them left the desk even angrier -- I think I was one of the lucky ones. That may be part of the reason that the rules were relaxed to allow laptops, since forcing people to check their laptops exposes the airlines to alot of expensive liablity for things that passengers would normally take responsibility for in their carry-ons.
Are you saying you condone the other extreme: kill all Muslims and nuke all Islamic countries? Because either you admit that it's not Islam that is the problem, but Extremists who happen to Muslims that are causing problems, you we just outlaw all religions and shoot anyone for having one. As soon as you start taking people out for their religion you have a new crusade. And if the West decides to follow your line of thought to its conclusion, then we have the more horrible massacure of people in the history of the world (yes, even bigger than Hitler and Holocust). It would be a war that makes all the previous wars seem like trips to the park. It's one thing to attack a government, which you can change pretty easily. But once you target people based on faith, and you have a Holy War, the kind the Bible talked about.
Space for rent, inquire within
American, living in London, on the road betweet three to five days a week. I usually travel via Heathrow although sometimes I'm out of Gatwick.
I now use City Airport as much as possible, but they only provide short haul service into the continent.
For long haul flights I now Eurostar to Paris or Amsterdam where I pick up a connecting flight.
The fundamental problem is BAA, the airport operator, has declined to add staff to perform the required searches manually, thus protecting their profits. And the airlines are just as bad, attempting to maintain the same flight schedules to preserve revenue.
So the passengers are caught in the middle, and we're expected to strip down to our underwear and file, arms crossed above our heads, gratefully onto to the waiting aircraft.
Not me, and many like me. Business class travelers are avoiding this circus in droves.
We're all either using smaller airports that were not impacted like Heathrow / Gatwick or, if a long flight is needed (I'm off to Cairo in two weeks), we're taking the train to Paris or Amsterdam, and picking up a connecting flight from there.
None of the continental airports are doing this crap. None of the Asian airports are doing this crap. Even the US isn't going this far.
Make no mistake about it - this is all about protecting profits. Nothing more.
A message from our sponsor
Nothing says you are a professional more, than showing up to a presentation and hoping your client has some way for you to present your information. In the business world, showing up with a usb stick wont cut it. What if you get last minute changes? Going to borrow a clients computer to do your work on?
Presentations are meant to impress somebody. People dont hop onto a jet and fly around the world to impress their underlings. If you cant spend $1k on a laptop, and $1k on a projector, my company wont be providing what you cant afford, and wont be doing business with you.
If were honest about the way Palestinians have been treated we'd realise that we in the west are setting up a similar scenario on a larger scale and as a previous poster said in the end we'll have to talk to Hezbolah & Hamas, or if we hang on a while longer a more extreme group will be sure to come along.
"Linux is for noobs"-The new MS fud strategy
Is this some new, more appealing take on Schrodinger's Cat?
Nah, racial profiling doesn't work with Muslims. Islamists are bloodthirsty and ruthless. These Muslims will kill their own children if it means they can murder non-muslims too. Read about this Muslim that wanted to blow up a plane but knew he couldn't get a bomb past Israel's racial profiling based security. So he seduced an Irish woman and got her pregnant, to complete his cover story he even got engaged to her. Then the Muslim put her on a plane and snuck a bomb into her luggage. He knew the weakness to racial profiling. A pregnant Irish woman could get past Israeli security, a young Arab from the Middle East couldn't. The Irish gf had no idea she was being used as part of a terrorist plot, she thought she was going to meet her fiance's parents. The fact is he was willing to kill his fiance and his own unborn child to blow up some infidels. Oh, and he wasn't planning to even be on that flight. You can read more about this case here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindawi_Affair
I mean really... just a complete troll.
a) How many of us don't have or want a PDA? Answer: Lots
b) Even if we did have a PDA we'd still need the laptop in order to either work on when we get to our work destination, or, in my case, use as a portable entertainment unit for watching movies etc. when at my travel destination, and also to be able to offload and edit photos I've taken while out and about.
Urgh, what a post!
Hanging random (almost random) people and burning crosses on people's lawns nicely fits the definition of terrorism.
Now, the KKK probably won't be blowing up airplanes SO THEY WON'T AFFECT YOU too much. Some of the other organizations listed have bombed airplanes and probably would like to again. The islamic terrorists are just a little irritated right now because they got one of their strongholds invaded.
How do you recognize a moslem to haul into the special line anyway? I know one with red hair and freckles.
Let's stop just a minute...
Let's also leave aside that the above is simply wrong as a matter of fact...
Do you really think that doing something 'in the name of Islam' (or Christianity, or the Free Software Foundation, etc) automatically makes you a Muslim (or Christian, or Free Software advocate)?
I don't know where you stand on the FSF, but assuming you are broadly sympathetic to its aims, how would you feel if I suddenly started blowing up planes 'in the name of the FSF'?
Let's be rational about this. Anyone can claim to be associated with a particular movement or organisation. Whether you actually are can only be decided from whether your actions are in keeping with that organisation's goals.
Simply put:-
- Board train with suitcase filled with explosives at any station - minimal security.
- Leave suitcase in suitable location and leave train. Here in the UK no one would touch it
- Use timer/gps to detonate bomb at suitable location. Suggestions given were:-
- As train passes suitable military base
- As train passes through suitable urban area
And even without the gps/timer aspect, consider what would happen if a bomb went of in a major rail station of your choice in a city of your choice during the rush hour. Remember 7/7/05? Those were baby bombs delivered by amateurs.init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Do yourself all a favor, pack your bags well and don't over pack. In the end, would I check a laptop? Probably not, but I would be more worried about theft on the baggage claim side than plane side.
In the '80s, the terrorists were communist revolutionaries.
No, they were American-funded minority Irish sepratists that indiscriminatly killed innocent men, women and children, as well as attempting to kill the UK Prime Minister, and succeded in killing half the cabinet.
What would happen if an Iranian citizen, a member of Al-Queda, managed to blow up the annual Republican bash, killing half the seceratries, and Bush only escaped by a fluke, and to top it all, British citizens were funding them?
Actually the bulk of the funding for the IRA did come from the US...
Al.The Daily ACK - Eclectic posts by yet another hacker
You also have 180,000kg of aircraft traveling at 236m/s. Which gives you an additional 5 gigajoules. Hmm, insignificant in comparison to the fuel. As you were.
Deleted
Schrodinger's Pussy ?
True, but only by the classical definition of terrorism, which someone who commits any act with the intent to cause fear in a section of the population. On the other hand, by that same standard, our own government in the U.S. is a terrorist organization. Do you honestly think that "Threat Level Red" notices to the general public serve any useful purpose other than to scare them into submission?
No, if we are going to define terrorism in the modern day, you have to include the words "use of force" or similar---someone who uses force to cause fear a section of the population. By comparison, a few random hangings notwithstanding, the KKK no longer meets the modern definition of terrorist. Sorry, but they aren't even in the same league.
Almost all terrorists have been foreign nationals flying on a passport from a mid-east country. You want to do heightened screenings in a non-racist way, that's how you do it. You track every single person coming into the country from that portion of the world. You further record every person who has ever flown into that portion of the world who is NOT known to be a foreign national. Those people get more extensive screening. Everyone else gets something similar to what we have now.
The reality, though, is that there are so many potentially explosive substances that it isn't practical, nay, possible to screen for them all. The only way to catch terrorists is to do so long before they get to the airport through good old fashioned intelligence gathering... and I don't mean secret courts and wiretaps on the phones of every AT&T customer....
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
The list also includes some very deadly organisations, which was the point.
One of the non-mulsim groups on the list has killed far more people than Al_Quaeda (tens of thousands), and they have carried out "240+" suicide bombings - but as they only killed funny coloured foreigners I suppose you think that does not count.
btw BOTH the terrorist groups that have bombed places I lived in (and came close to getting me more than once) used to raise money in the US
How about those TSA approved luggage locks?n &lr=&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title
These locks have a combo that you know and a special key that the TSA has
that can open it too -- "for security".
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=TSA+lock&hl=e
Or did it strike anyone else odd that the article seemed to just be a big advertisement on why you need to go buy a new laptop case? I saw very little information about the actual policies, or doing anything about them, other than "Go buy a new case."
Irony: The article below it on the Slashdot homepage refers to fake news reports.
Coincidence?
Yeah, let's whip out all the lone wolves and their deacdes ago one off attacks.
Yeah, when someone makes a blanket absolute claim, heaven forbid someone point out a counter-example. And I'm not sure how they are any more "lone wolves" than muslim terrorists.
And just over one decade, I make it. I bet you people will still be citing 9/11 as an example of "Islamic terrorism" for long after 2012.
In every thread like this there is some academic robot defending that with that obsolete PC attitude
And in every thread, there is someone who claims their opponent is being "PC", because they can't explain why they are wrong...
Or do you advocate acceding to their demands which are 1) Destroy Israel and 2) Convert to Islam
Look, it's a strawman.
falling, lightning and even motor vehicle crashes are all risks which people can manage for themselves. Individuals can manage their risk of death by falling by:
- holding the handrail in stairways
- doing some form sporting exercise so as to become more physically adept
- being particularly careful in situations that pose a falling hazard
Individuals can manage their risk of lightning strike by- remaining indoors during electrical storms
- avoiding trees during electrical storms
- avoiding tall metallic objects during electrical storms
- not using umbrellas during electrical storms
Individuals can manage their risk of motor vehicle accidents byIn stark contrast, people can only manage their risk of being blown up in airplanes only by not getting onto airplanes in the first place. The governments only legitimate purpose is to do for people those things that they cannot reasonably do for themselves: I don't need my government protecting me from risks which I can manage (no, I did not say eliminate) for myself. When I get onto a commercial airliner, I want my government to take reasonable steps to manage the risks involved. Otherwise, what is a government good for aside from stealing my money and giving it to crack whores and junkies?
"Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11