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Backscatter X-Ray Machines Easily Fooled
Pinckney writes "A paper by Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson in the Journal of Transportation Security asserts that x-ray backscatter machines are not very effective (PDF) even in their intended role. While carelessly placed contraband will be detected, the machines have glaring blind-spots and have difficulty distinguishing explosives from human tissue. As they write, 'It is very likely that a large (15–20 cm in diameter), irregularly-shaped, cm-thick pancake [of PETN explosive] with beveled edges, taped to the abdomen, would be invisible to this technology. ... It is also easy to see that an object such as a wire or a boxcutter blade, taped to the side of the body, or even a small gun in the same location, will be invisible.'"
This obviously means that we are going to need better technology. We'll need technology that will be able to give us a full color representation of your completely nude body, but only if you're a hot chick. - Your Friendly local TSA Agent
...will automatically detect suspicious areas of the image and rescan them slowly at high power.
Or they'll just go to transmission x-ray scanners concealed in the metal detector frame.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
... as the people enforcing it.
Passengers and cargo are a security risk. Prohibit them from boarding planes, and everyone will be safe.
(Pilots are also a security risk. In the future all planes will fly autonomously, controlled by AIs.)
(Programmers writing the AIs are also a security risk. You know what? Scrap those planes, they're not carrying anything anyway.)
3....2....1....
Don't you know you can't leak information like this? There are several people making millions of dollars off the sale of these machines....er...um...I mean our national security is at risk when information like this is leaked.
the former head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff helped sell them to the government and the government mandated them and removed everyone's rights.
American anthem playing in background.
Not to sound like a broken record (does that phase mean anything to people or did I just show my age), but I'm not sure why this surprises anyone. It's not about security. It's about security theater. And until the TSA fundamentally changes the way they do things, it always will be.
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Yup, experts have been warning about this all year. Meanwhile, explosives detectors (you know, the ones removed from airports last year because they were too much trouble to maintain) seems to be a banned topic in the news.
Unfortunately the TSA now has too much invested to suddenly admit it probably wasn't a good idea to stop using the more effective machines that are less invasive (they were the round swabs on luggage) replaced with the less effective machines that are more invasive.
Why didn't the TSA test this technology first to make sure it works? I mean, it's not like cloth tape and a flattened explosive are unprecedented or amazingly cunning bits of circumvention! Why not hire 20 nerds and give them a week to figure out if they can sneak something truly dangerous through the scanner? As long as they can do so reliably, wait for the next version of the machine and test again. Only when it works should you place the order!
Considering how a lot of you look naked, that would be enough to force anyone to give up terrorism.
As they write, 'It is very likely that a large (15-20 cm in diameter), irregularly-shaped, cm-thick pancake [of PETN explosive] with beveled edges, taped to the abdomen, would be invisible to this technology. ... It is also easy to see that an object such as a wire or a boxcutter blade, taped to the side of the body, or even a small gun in the same location, will be invisible.'"
Will probably put them on the do-not-fly list for the rest of eternity. Of course, that won't matter much if they are scientists, since our country is about to start eviscerating the research budgets (and hence they will want to do their work elsewhere) anyways.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
All these guys care about is spending a shitload of money on useless junk and harassing citizens while looking at your daughter naked, I don't think they actually care about the security aspect of it.
Just require all passengers/crew/staff to go through security naked... Problem solved!
by carrying guns in airplanes!
Franck Martin
Avonsys
Seriously, though, if someone were committed enough, and could find a sympathetic medical professional, what's to stop them from having a kidney, appendix, portion of small intestine, and anything they could do without for a little while removed, and replaced with a few pounds of high explosive? The only real problem is keeping the detonator undetectable by the metal detector. For that matter, once that were done, this 'human bomb' would probably be able to get past just about any security checkpoint, not just airports. Let's face it, if someone really wants to bring down a plane and has more than a moderate IQ, they probably are going to have a pretty decent shot at doing it. Maybe these devices and this system isn't perfect, but it's better than the alternative, which is doing nothing.
The Boston Globe reported today that a the mutilated body of a teen boy found last month in a Boston suburb probably fell out of the wheel well of an airplane he is believed to stowed away on. Several articles of his clothing were found scattered along the flight's approach to Boston's Logan Airport.
Earlier this year in Japan a body was discovered in the wheel well of a flight originating at New York's JFK. Investigation later revealed that the unfortunate hadn't stowed away in New York, but in Lagos Nigeria *two months earlier*.
What does this tell you about all this body scanning hoopla? We're building a fortress that sports a fearsome looking portcullis but has open windows on the ground floor.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Come on, now. The obvious solution is to censor the publication of this article, so that the terrorists won't find out about the blind spots!
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
This report is likely to be taken as a how to do it manual for some creeps. The bad guys probably know about this sort of thing anyway I suppose.
Can they stop this, even if they look at it with their eyes? (metal detector might get that one, but I feel like it would be easy enough to design one that makes it through any detector).
But so what? Even if they manage to keep every single weapon off the plane, it is still simple enough to hijack. All you have to do is fill the plan completely full of Al Qaeda drones. Pick a plane going to Saudi Arabia and you have a perfect cover, a plane full of people, everything you need. If you can choose your seats, you might be able to get away with only 20 people seated by the pilot door.
Or another plan, have your Al Qaeda guys become pilots. Then they don't need to hijack they plane, they can lock the pilot door and fly it wherever they want. That is a longer-term plan, but then again these Al Qaeda guys have been going at it for two decades or so, a few years of pilot school is no deterrent.
Qxe4
Does this same condition exist for the Millimeter Wave RF scanners too, or do they have better resolution or discrimination abilities?
I haven't traveled much since these scanners went into effect, but so far I've only seen the RF scanners.
Last time I encountered one I asked the TSA rep if it was RF or X-ray, and she said "It's millimeter wave, and it's the same as an ultrasound". I told her that that can't be true since an ultrasound doesn't use RF energy, and she said "It *is* the same, now move along". I reported her misinformation to a supervisor, but I'm not sure he even understood the difference between ultrasound and an RF scanner.
I'm fine with the RF scanners (I don't think they are all that effective since a determined terrorist will use one of the many holes in airport security to bring in his weapon -- plus my "junk" isn't all that interesting), but I don't like being lied too (or worse someone directing me into a device that she doesn't even have a basic understanding of -- surely the difference between sound and RF energy is not too hard for a TSA agent to understand)
A security measure that is not perfect can still be good. Okay it can be circumvented by a limited set of actions. Even if that's true, a potential terrorist/hijacker is even more limited in his actions (may only use weapons that get past through this measure, which is a smaller set than all weapons), even more prone to errors (perhaps the weapon isn't attached just the right way?) and his life is just generally made more difficult (perhaps he is more nervous due to added measures? perhaps the risk of failure rose by just enough that he decided to not even try?).
Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't question the effectiveness of security measures (Note: I'm not defending the effectiveness of these, just attacking a certain flawed argument that is very common on this site) but I'm sure that if the concept of fingerprint now came up, people would shout "WHAT?! Is this what our tax money is used to? This can be circumvented by WEARING GLOVES!! And it's easy enough to set someone up using these!"... Yet the history has shown us that while it's - in theory - extremely easy to avoid leaving fingerprints (and many criminals succesfully do so), they're not useless in solving crimes because the real world is complicated. There are so many possible points of failure that you might fuck up such a simple thing as wearing gloves. I think that you are being intellectually dishonest if you think that "Only for crimes made out of passion and without planning!" is a valid counter-argument. Pretty much every single crime solving and/or prevention tool we have can be circumvented somehow (and usually, easily) if you forget that the world is a complex place with numerous points of failure and you are likely to be very nervous, etc. when implementing it. "You can easily circumvent this by using a small set of object and carefully attaching them in the optimal way and walking through in the right angle, without looking especially nervous and... Look, we replicated that in our simulation!" is downright silly.
And while I'm at it, I could also attack the "These haven't prevented a single terrorist attack!" claim. You don't really know that, do you. If a terrorist or hijacker thinks "I should do X... Oh wait, X isn't possible any more due to this precaution. Oh well, nevermind then." it won't show up in any statistics. (Yes, there are plenty of other ways they could harm people with but every time someone has to give up their preferred course of action for a plan B is a small victory... Because it should be assumed that there were reasons for preferring plan A in the first place.)
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not defending these specific devices - or even the insane security theatre in general - but it always makes me sad when people use the "This can be circumvented using this set of actions that I just came up with - with no other context about the intended plan, the people involved, etc. etc. etc. - so it's obviously worthless" -argument.
Put a dome over the airport, or just the whole city. Scan at all times.
They'll promote some sort of biometric implants at some point. You don't have an implant? What are you trying to hide?
There's a reason these problems are never solved. There is more money in fixing/upgrading the gear than there is building it right the first time. CompanyA builds box to current specifications. Turns out those specs suck. CompanyA now given new money to build it better. Rinse. Repeat. As it's been mentioned already, the only people these systems help are the shareholders.
My mom says I'm cool.
"Yes, the TSA will see you naked, but the image is digitally altered so you look 200lb heavier, and, well, chunky."
Does having a witty signature really indicate normality?
>not very effective (PDF) even in their intended role
You're implicitly buying in to the claim that their intended role has something to do with safety.
The purpose of a system is what it does. The ~$200,000 scanner purchases funnel tax money to a company which made payments to the former director of Homeland Security. They condition people to being treated like prisoners. The first was deliberate.
They're working perfectly.
In order to "help" them we should install these x-ray scanners at the entrance to the senate and house of representatives, in order to ensure that nothing dangerous is brought into the chambers.
I bet they would refuse to be x-rayed with these machines. Which is very telling about how dangerous they really are.
Most people don't realize that backscatter is an imaging tool and not a bomb detector. It requires a human operator to interpret the image. If the bomb is well blended into body contours, there is a high probability that the operator would miss it. If you look at the backscatter sales literature (it's on their web sites) it shows images of people with concealed knives or guns. Stuff that would also set off a metal detector.
In my opinion, it is a little disingenuous that the TSA is using the bomb threat as the justification to switch from metal detectors to backscatter. One of the reasons that the shoe and underwear bombers failed is they weren't able to conceal a proper detonator (which contains metal), and resorted to trying jerry rig a lighted fuze detonator. So in that sense, the metal detectors did do their job. But if concealed explosives were the primary threat, then x-ray in tandem with bomb sniffing dogs or some type of actual bomb detector would be more effective. The other downside to imaging is the human operator spends hours looking at thousands of passengers. There is a good chance that the operator won't be alert enough to spot a bomb or weapon, even when it is not perfectly concealed.
Exactly right. Not sure why this is often dismissed as a "conspiracy theory", it's right there in every ones face. He's the boss, he gets the money, and hey, he still has the friends to make it happen. I would do exactly the same if I were him.
Given that the plan involves all passengers being naked, the incision where they replaced the kidney should be fairly noticeable.
Would a hip flask of whiskey be detectable in the pilot's pocket?
How about a lid?
As I have said, the only way to be absolutely sure is to perform a premortem autopsy on every passenger. The downside is that somewhere along the way, it becomes a postmortem autopsy. The good news is that airlines could then stack passengers into cargo planes at twenty time the density as current passenger planes. The bad news, no more round trip tickets.
The purpose of these backscatter machines is to increase the cancer rates amongst the demographic of those who fly more often thereby ... ok, you got me. I can't see any realy reason for these things being used over a proper security system. But, there has to be a reason for the governments using ionising radiation on those who travel, right?
The conclusion I draw from this article is that the backscatter machine alone doesn't provide security, but it can in concert with other security measures. Let's say I want to smuggle plastic explosives (PE) onto a plane. Well, they have chemical sniffers that can detect even trace amounts of explosives, so it would have to be tightly sealed in an almost perfect container. Having a pancake shaped blob of the stuff taped to your belly may get past the backscatter machine, but it would fail a chemical sniffer test miserably. And if the explosives are sealed in such a way as to fool the sniffers, such a package certainly wouldn't fool the backscatter machine. And as for the knives and guns which might get past if taped properly, they would be picked up by the metal detector.
I'm not saying the security if perfect; my point is only that you can't analyze the effectiveness of each of the security measures individually. They have to be studied collectively.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Adam Savage of Mythbusters walked through a backscatter with two 12" razor blades and they never noticed.
Shouldn't You expect more from your DJ?
Further proof that the Israelis are doing is the right way and the way that we (the US) are doing it is not effective against those who want to do harm.
If there were terrorists who would want to blow all the Americans up, or even several of you, you'd be dead. This doesn't appear to be happening to Americans. Ergo....
Aeroplanes, (For the young people) "airplanes" should be nude! everybody strips naked before flights and just to make things interesting we get randomly assigned to do body cavity searches on each other! You might "luck out" and get the blond hardbody bikini model or you might have nightmares for years from getting 88 year old Mrs. Muhfufski!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
I've often wondered about what seems like a huge gap in the security technology: umbrella shafts, like the Penguin would use. It's a thin circular shaft of metal. On the X-ray, it's going to show up as thin circular shaft of metal. Seems like an obvious place to put a sword blade...
Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson have provided information to the Taliban and Al Queda so they can kill innocent babies!
Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson are traitors and should be held accountable!
If we just pretend (real hard) that the backscatter machines will protect us, they will.
Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson are Satan!!!
Stop Helping The Terrorists!
These guys Leon and Joseph working at their fancy 'university' are clearly on an ego trip, revealing such secret information through their 'research', and publishing it through their rogue 'scientific journal'. They should put a warrant out for these guys, or better yet, an assassination drone.
The real cost of this 'free information'! Will nobody think of the innocent TSA agents this will embarrass? How can the security industry survive if you keep downing their products with such facts. Security and survaillance systems, voting machines - all information on such vital systems to our democracy and freedom must remain a secret to protect our innocent pretty little heads.
And Soulskill! how dare you post 'a story' here with and actual link to the original document in PDF format! you are not helping anybody. How will the link farm owners buy new shoes for their kids now? Will nobody think of the kids! They could've at least included some x-rays of kids on their paper - to demonstrate how effective the machine are at showing every part and crevice of their bodies.
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
Hmm, the recent report about microbes eating iron on the Titanic makes me wonder if there are aluminum eating microbes? It might not be quick, but think of the terror caused by planes breaking apart in flight in a few years after being infected with and partly digested by those aluminum gobbling microbes. And I'll bet I could smuggle them on a plane even if I were naked!
These x-ray backscatter machines are enormously in their designed function.
Their designed function, of course, is to transfer large amounts of money from the government to x-ray backscatter machine manufacturers.
Was irc'ing and jokingly said to a friend. .. think of them all .. .. send a few thousand flying in the morning
All the small planes the FAA dont know zit about
Several thousands of them. All without security
and use them all as flying bombs. Imagine the nightmare .
Low flying airplanes loaded with explosives falling out of the skies by the thousands.
Now THAT is scary. Im not scared by the large planes full of people.
Im concerned by all those thousands of private planes the FAA dont know zit about and that can suddenly be used as missiles.
Just need to build a blast-proof booth at the airport that each passenger must go through. Invent some device that can cause any nearby explosive to detonate. Install it in the booth, and activate it briefly as each person goes through. Problem solved.
Fact is, we put down a metric crap ton of serviceable dogs a year because we can't find homes for them. Train them to bark at explosives, chain them at the gate, DONE. Cheaper than the morons they hire at the TSA as well.
I think this means EVERYONE needs an enhanced grope, right?
My girlfriend is headed off to south america via LA soon, and I'm very concerned about her having to endure either the backscatter (breast cancer is a high risk in her family) or enhanced patdown (sexual assault).
It is shameful that this can go on in the states!
has happened, with terrible results. Different machines of course, but nevertheless a demonstration that shit happens. There's no reason to believe that airport backscatter systems' software is any more reliable than that deployed on systems that have failed disastrously in the past.
See http://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs3604/lib/Therac_25/Therac_1.html
for one example.
this autopsy performed on you?" Its theater. You're supposed to be lulled into a sense of complacency. This will catch only the incompetent terrorists. But given the fact that these guys are obviously not the sharpest knives in the drawer, (obviously since they've been talked into believing that there's an afterlife, that they'll be entitled to a bunch of grapes when they reach Valhalla, or wherever you go when you're no longer going anywhere, they're pretty friggin' stupid,) the system should catch all of those morons.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
At the risk of my own karma, I do declare, "MOD PARENT UP!!!"
The TrisexualPuppy
The name might not mean much to most of you, but Leon Kaufman was one of the true pioneers in MR. He was born in Argentina in 1942, educated in the US and received his PhD from UC Berkeley in Physics, with an emphasis on nuclear medicine physics. He was recruited to the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine around 1980, and had a small lab in the basement of one of the SF main campus buildings. The then Chair of Radiology, Alex Margulis MD, saw potential in a tool called NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), and found funding for Leon to build the Radiological Imaging Laboratory in a much larger off-campus space in an industrial park at Oyster Point near SFO. Leon assembled a small and brilliant team of RF engineers, NMR physicists and programmers, and in 1981 developed the first practical whole body superconducting MRI system for clinical use in the US, which eventually was commercialized by Diasonics and then Toshiba. Much of the early clinical MR research was done at UCSF and RIL (just hit Medline or Google), and I was privileged to be one of his few fellows in the mid 1980s. Leon passed away Thursday after a 1-1/2 year battle with metastatic colon carcinoma, leaving his (second) wife and a 6 year-old daughter, as well as an adult son from his first marriage. He was a true giant, and will be missed. His funeral is Sunday in San Francisco.
I know you may think you were joking (or perhaps you read the article last year), but someone has actually managed to attempt an assassination (ass-ination?) using--wait for it--one pound of explosives in their colon. The target was Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, and the assassin managed to fit a pound of PETN inside his posterior.
He who has no
Can't this pancacke method be "unfooled" by having passengers turn slightly in the scanner instead of standing still. But, since the groin area is obscured slightly, wouldn't packing your PETN down there be less likely to be detected?
Surgically implant explosives shaped as breast enhancement, two small wires concealed by the covering bra, and a modified tape recorder or flashlight as a power source for detonation. I guess the detonator would have to be embedded in the explosives. Go in to the forward bathroom, detonate yourself against the junction of the cockpit and fuselage. You'd stand a good chance of killing pilots, damaging control runs, and you'd blast a hole in the side of the fuselage at a critical juncture point. The wind blast at 500 MPH that far forward would cause some really bad problems.
IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO DEFEND AGAINST EVERY THREAT. Profiing, a good magnetometer, and improved investigation is the way to make airline travel safer.
I would find the concept of airport MRIs hilarious. Piercings? Gotta come out. Prison tats? Could be problematic, according to House. Implanted pins or artificial joints? No can do. Gun within X yards of machine? Very bad!
http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/content/full/178/5/1092
Leon, a family friend, died on December 8th and his funeral is being held today. He loved lengthy discussion and bullshit sessions revolving around science and technology and I'm sure is loving it that slashdot is part of his send-off.
...Eat for Health: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiR9VcuVWw
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Increase power and reverse the polarity!
KA-CHUNK-CLUNK!!
It lives!!! bwahahaha!!