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Airport Scanners Can Store and Transmit Images
CNN is reporting on findings from a Freedom of Information request initiated by the Electronic Privacy Information Center that has revealed that, contrary to public statements by the Transportation Security Agency, full-body scanners can store and transmit images. "In the [FOIA] documents, obtained by the privacy group and provided to CNN, the TSA specifies that the body scanners it purchases must have the ability to store and send images when in 'test mode.' ... 'There is no way for someone in the airport environment to put the machine into the test mode,' [an anonymous] official said, adding that test mode can be enabled only in TSA test facilities. But the official declined to say whether activating test mode requires additional hardware, software or simply additional knowledge of how the machines operate."
The picture they show in every article about the things must have come from somewhere.
The paranoia that someone may see a fuzzy resemblance of your actual body seems to have no bounds in the US. You'd think people would be more worried that the chemical scanners used in airports fail to detect most explosives, but no ...
It doesn't matter, and nothing we think on this subject matters anyway.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
Wow, what a surprise! Just like electronic voting machines, I'm absolutely certain they are invulnerable to hacking.
Further analysis of the documents finds some improperly-redacted material indicating that the test mode can in fact be entered with a sequence on the control panel, to wit "UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A START".
"cannot be hacked"
This should be a massive red flag. The is the same as stating to the world, I'm unqualified and have no idea what I'm talking about.
"employees who misuse the machines are subject to serious discipline or removal"
Hmmm. So when pushed, they admit that security is ensured by the fact that the government employees are going to behave. Just like those Blackwater guys?
I would be temped to get a job with the TSA just to get a chance to hack these things. Plus, working with a partner, you could easily get high value images of celebrities.
'There is no way for someone in the airport environment to put the machine into the test mode,' [an anonymous] official said, adding that test mode can be enabled only in TSA test facilities. But the official declined to say whether activating test mode requires additional hardware, software or simply additional knowledge of how the machines operate.
Leaving aside the idea of whether we really should care or not...
By not answering, I think this official made the answer pretty obvious. Basically it's analogous to the RFID passport issue. When they say "it can only be done under these specific circumstances", they're simply leaving off the lead-in phrase "Our policy is clear - ". The erstwhile "restriction" is political, not technical.
I imagine it won't be too long before some enterprising TSA employee - or a hacker - puts up a website with surreptitious photographs of cute women alongside their full-body scan images.
#DeleteChrome
Just imagine some TSA creeps snickering at an image of your girlfriend's, your father's or your mother's naked body.
We are all endowed with certain inalienable rights, including the right not to be examined nude en masse by the government when we travel.
Dignity is an essential human right. How dare we sacrifice it to terror?
Freedom? Yeah, right!
Need a shirt and pants that route x-rays around the body so when you step into the scanner, they only see a head and shoes.
Add: A fluctuating Eye of Sauron where your chest would be that the x-rays can see.
They probably record every single image generated by those things, and hold it at least until the passenger's flight is over. I don't see why they would do it any other way. It flies in the face of reason. I know they say otherwise, but I doubt they feel bad about lying to the general public. It's for the greater good, right?
For actual security purposes it would make sense to store images and network the machines. That way after the fact if there is a security lapse they can review someone's scan to see what was missed.
They can add value by auto-updating everyone's FaceBook page with the latest scan and the new status 'clean'/'hilarious'/'needs liposuction'/'tumescent'/'en route to Gitmo' etc.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Just get a really, really ugly person to do it. They are not going to be looking.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Got a real hot babe going thru the scanner here.
- TSA Perv
How does this stop terrorists who board plans elsewhere and come here (with the thought of blowing up the plane?). These scanners need to be where a terrorist is most likely to board a plane. Thus a push for having them in international airports all over the world would be a much better plan than having them all over the US including tiny domestic airports.
Suddenly, I understand how this works.
"Nope, he hasn't got the balls to hijack a plane."
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
C'mon now, all this talk about celebrities and hacking those "high-profile" images. Please. Most celebrities don't bother with this now.
Let's see, I'm a celebrity making millions. Do I A) Pay $1000 to fly first-class on a public airline and risk my career being ruined by a horny airport scanner operator stealing my "naked" image, or B) Realize I have enough "ah, fuck it" money lying around to lease my own NetJet where I don't have to deal with the bullshit of either scanners or the pubic.
just fly naked. If they don't like it, you can claim it's a security related measure.
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
Say you catch a guy with something and they have a trial. And the judge asks for the evidence to be presented. Well. Yeah they need a copy of that in initial scan.
You don't even have to watch Law and Order to know that shit.
If it pisses you off enough to stop flying, then do so. Also, if you do stop flying, make sure to let the airlines know. You can send a letter to all the ones you use, but in particular any you have a frequent flier program with. Send them something like:
"I regret to inform you that as of this date, I will no longer by flying on your airline. The reason for this has nothing to do with your company or the service I receive, but rather with the onerous, arbitrary, ineffective, and demeaning security theater inflicted on passengers before we are allowed access to flights. I cannot suffer it any longer, and thus am no longer flying until such time it has been rectified. I suggest you let congress know that this security theater is costing you business."
Guess what? If people start doing that, shit will change. The airlines will notice sales falling, the letters will give them a big reason why (companies know for every person that writes a letter there are generally many that feel the same way but don't) and they'll lean hard on congress. They give big dollars, and as is obvious from past bailouts, congress considers the important. If the air carriers push hard enough, congress will yank on the TSA's chain and stop this crap.
Do remember that your vote for political candidates is not your only vote in this country. Voting with your wallet is exceedingly effective in many situations. Make the airlines feel the pain, and they'll tell congress to fix it.
I appreciated his fairly tough statements, but, frankly, I would have preferred that he be slightly less merciful and go ahead and fire some of the bureaucrats whose incompetence and malfeasance put Americans in jeopardy. That would have been a much clearer message that we have plenty of tools to find and halt terrorist plots now...and that the only thing that will truly deal with the problem is better intelligence gathering, analysis, and, examinations of why it is that so much of the world is pissed enough with America's policies that even well educated members of society are willing to blow them selves up to attempt to strike at us.
In answer to your question as to why the world gets pissed off at Americans, consider the concept that there were probably some non-Americans on that flight. but clearly it doesn't matter if they were in danger, because Americans were in danger and that's way more important. The Christmas bomber attempted to commit a deplorable crime and put the lives of many PEOPLE in danger. Their nationality makes very little difference to their survival rate I'm sure, but then I am not a statistician.
To answer the grand-parent, your health insurance companies would LOVE to get their hands on your scans, especially without your knowledge. Here is a full body scan taken of you that you yourself do not get to see. I honestly don't know whether the images we see online are mock ups of what would be seen or actual images from the machines, but it seems the machines can not only see through clothes but into the body as well, certainly some of these images show skeletal structure. Are they high enough in resolution to detect large tumors? Small ones? We, the public, don't have enough details for us to make an informed decision. I for one am against any body scan where I don't have control over the results, including the right to review and destroy.
These scanners reflect off of skin. So if you're a fatass, what's keeping you from going through the scanner with explosives (similar to what the "underwear bomber" used - no metal, no smell) tucked between your fat rolls? Way less uncomfortable and way more capacity than anal storage...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel