Slashdot Mirror
The Ineffectiveness of TSA Body Scanners
TheNextCorner points out a video that lays bare a glaring flaw in the TSA body scanners used in airports to detect weapons and explosives. In such scans, citizens are depicted in light colors, while metallic objects show as very dark. The problem comes when you consider that the images are taken with a dark background. From the transcript:
"Yes that’s right, if you have a metallic object on your side, it will be the same color as the background and therefore completely invisible to both visual and automated inspection. It can’t possibly be that easy to beat the TSA’s billion dollar fleet of nude body scanners, right? The TSA can’t be that stupid, can they? Unfortunately, they can, and they are. To put it to the test, I bought a sewing kit from the dollar store, broke out my 8th grade home ec skills, and sewed a pocket directly on the side of a shirt. Then I took a random metallic object, in this case a heavy metal carrying case that would easily alarm any of the “old” metal detectors, and walked through a backscatter x-ray at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. On video, of course. While I’m not about to win any videography awards for my hidden camera footage, you can watch as I walk through the security line with the metal object in my new side pocket."
the enemy by pointing out stupidity!
-- George Carlin
Go back to the old scanners. Try again in a few years with better tech if you actually create some. Actually test the tech out next time, preferably with open field testing. Geeks can break most anything and it's best to see how they can BEFORE you implement the "important terrorist stopping scanner".
Might work if you are Francisco Scaramanga.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
The only surprising thing here is that it took so long for such an easy work-around to come to light. It's not that there are very few people working with those scanners on a daily basis, and I bet plenty of TSA front-line personnel will discuss those scanners and how they work with their friends.
Images purporting to show what TSA scanners actually get have been demonstrated to be fakes:
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=154635.0
The Wolfpack Project: BitCoin + Crowdfunding = Political Accountability
The US government doesn’t like having flaws pointed out, if they can turn this on you they will.
However this scanner is only part of the plan and a gun will be more visible due to the nature of the device and how it works, a small metal tin is not a good test.
The workaround for this is to have people turn at 45 intervals in the scanner so that you can catch them at every angle. Of course this will increase the time it takes to scan each individual which means you will need to buy more backscatter x-ray machines and hire more TSA employees to keep people moving through at the same rate.
whenever the authorities want them to slip through.
[conspiracy mode on]
With Israeli security companies controlling American security, you just as well let everybody on board because
when the Likud-Neocons decide to shock the average American again to justify their Iran war, terrorist will miraculously defy all security measures.
[conspiracy mode off]
Since obviously a metal detector will detect that sort of thing, the tsa will now buy new millimeter wave/backscatter x-ray scanners with a traditional metal detector integrated into the system. The only reason they're going to give up their toys is because they can get better ones.
Fuck Beta
They invade citizens' privacy, and because of that, I think they should be gone.
"For the children," "to stop the terrorists," "ban technology X because of the actions of a few," they're all the same thing. All that's needed is increased cockpit security and citizen awareness. No privacy violations are necessary or even wanted.
This should have been titled "The Effectiveness of Political Donations and Revolving Door Practices".
It should simply read, "The Ineffectiveness of the TSA"
Silence is a state of mime.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of SSDDs! ...
... oh, wait, that's SSDDs. My bad.
But, well, I guess that still works -- that's essentially what we have now with the TSA in all our airports / bus stations / pants.
Anyone else care to dance the Charlie Foxtrot? It's awfully popular these days...
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Okay.
I don't believe this. This cannot be true. Its simply impossible for any culture that produces devices like this to exist. The culture would have to be too stupid to invent the screws holding the thing together! This is such a brain-blindingly hilariously awfully maniacally stupid thing that it can NOT exist. It can not! I tell you, it was the psychologists. They wanted to drive us mad to make money and steal all our Thetans. Our luscious, juicy thetans! And without the thetans, Xenu would buy all the pesticide in the world, destroying all the insects. No insects, no honey! No honey, no assembly system for anti-alien defences. They would then steal all our weather-control devices to dry up the loch ness lake and unleash it on the middle east, stealing all the oil in the process! It's all a coverup! ITS ALL A COVERUP!
I heard you can hide a gun in a Fleshlight and it'll get through.
Yeah. Duh. Who wants to actually inspect the inside of one of those? Do you want the job?
All you have managed to point out is what the TSA and everyone else with a remedial education already knew. The body scanners aren't metal detectors. They are detectors to show what does and doesn't belong with a normal human form. So you pointed out a flaw in the current method the use for screening. Maybe they will thank you for that but I doubt it. What is going to be done now is that the TSA will require you to go through the metal detector and the body scanner.
I was part of a team bringing forward a competing technology to those scanners (standoff biometrics, no weird imaging, ~5 different measurements, easy to beat one, hard to beat them all). We thought we had won the tests. At least, we found all the people sneaking stuff in during our test and we knew they couldn't have detected certain things - like explosives, which they still can't see.
Due to the nature of my sensor work, much of my clothing is covered in explosives residue. A good scanner should really pick me out every time, but I only ever get "caught" when I'm selected for random screening.
We were pretty surprised when we found out they were selected. I guess we should have worked harder on our lobbying and less on our engineering.
"privacy shield", meet "no-fly list"...
My very large brother in law told me and my wife that he could sneak anything we wanted on an airplane that didn't have an odor (i.e. no weed). So we gave him a bottle of xanax that he then proceded to stick in the crevice of where his gut folded down to near his genitals and sure enough he went on through the body scanner and they said nothing.
Moral of the story: If you're flying back home and have a layover in the US bring a fat friend to help smuggle your shit
Any attempt to discredit the TSA is going to get you charged by revealing a state secret.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
The inquisition (yes, that one) was an expense account scam. Since the accused was required to pay for their own inquisition, the system simply padded the expenses to the limit of the available money.
The TSA is the same thing. People wail and moan about how stupid/intrusive/incompetent/useless they are, and miss the larger picture.
The TSA sends money to corporations, and the corporations grease the political wheels.
There's no rocket science, no ulterior motive, nothing else to consider. Like the inquisition, the TSA doesn't need to justify expenditures with usefulness or effectiveness. The more they spend, the more they get to spend. Cause and effect.
Why do you think they spend billions on technology, but pay only slightly above the minimum wage and spend so little on training?
People keep grousing about the TSA as if that will make a difference. It won't. They have been generally incompetent from the start, and there's nothing that people can do to unseat them from their position.
Voting hasn't helped. Contacting representatives hasn't helped. Complaining to the TSA or their employees hasn't helped. Legal action hasn't helped.
There's one obvious remaining course of action we can take to rein in all the government waste and corruption. Can anyone think of things to try before we take that last drastic step? I'm out of ideas...
I'm not sure flying solo counts.
Blank until
Interesting experiment, but how have you controlled for other problems with TSA.... maybe they just AREN'T LOOKING? It could be the technology is fine...
It seems obvious to me that the TSA knew the machines didn't work effectively, but that this didn't matter to them. Airport security isn't about making the skies safer, it's about scaring (some would even say terrorising) the public in order to give the government more power and control. In his video he even says that there was no threat with the old metal detectors...
There are so many ways one could commit an act of terrorism at an airport without getting on a plane if one were so inclined (I'm not, by the way!) and every time I fly I see more. The full body scanners do nothing to increase a person's safety.
Let's face it - the terrorists have won. The public are terrified. Sadly it's their own governments which have done the terrorising.
wrong thread ...
this should be posted here, since Mr Torvalds is the one having printing problems ....
so you naturally put all the "stuff" into your turban on your head right? we all know you are wearing it.... :)
Plus, I'm sure there are others that don't require a concealed carry permit.
I've snuck everything from pepper spray (accidentally), to a live deadly scorpion (on purpose) onto a plane, even with all this new security. All the scanners just make it inconvenient to conceal stuff, not impossible, or even that difficult really. Now what is effective are the interviews by personnel trained to detect unusual behavior, I'd feel much safer if we had more of those and fewer see you naked machines.
I'm glad the EU has declared backscatter X-ray scanners to be illegal to use in European airports. I work in a radiation industry and know a considerable amount about X-ray physics and medical imaging, and these scanners should never have been taken into use for public screening.
I love going through the US airports and requesting a manual search when they try to put me through the backscatter machines. They always make a big drama over it, but I explain that I work in a radiation industry and I will not subject myself to additional radiation given a choice. Backscatter machines fall into this category, and so far I have not been through a single one. If they try to force me to go through one or not pass the security checkpoint, I will take it all the way to the top if needed. I will not tolerate being scanned by a backscatter machine, nor should anyone else. It's not been proven safe for human use or effective at increasing security.
And let's not even get started about the fact that the TSA have been caught multiple times storing images from the backscatter and millimeter wave machines, when they say publicly that the images are not saved. There is a reason why they earned the nickname, pr0n scanner. There is no valid reason to save the images after you pass screening, unless they are simply playing the CYA game. This should not be allowed.
Note, the backscatter machines are far different than the millimeter wave scanners used in some airports. Millimeter wave is known to be safe. Backscatter is NOT and should never be used on the public.
You went intentionally through security with a metal object on you in this day and age? Are you in Guantanamo yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90f9Qm60tU8
If I needed a firearm on an airplane, I would probably use the 33 gram CO2 cartridges from the life vest conveniently located under my seat. Put it in a fitting pipe, and all you need is a crude firing device to pierce the seal - blunt force will do.
The TSA lines are there for your illusion of safety. Your real safety lies in the fact that it is rather unusual for people to conspire to kill a plane full of people, themselves included.
Maybe the government could stop aiding the enemy by being stupid.
It's more understandable if you read it like it's a broken up radio transmission from Metro 2033. With a Russian accent of course.
the "enemy" is much smarter than 10000 bureaucrats [GARBLED] being sold by a used car salesman ... [UNINTELLIGIBLE] ... after all this decades enemy has sustained life for thousands of years in an environment most of our citizens would die in, in a matter of hours...[CRACKLE] they do have some tricks "up their sleeve"
Great, now we'll get a bigger dose of "safe" radiation as they take side pictures as well.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I read somewhere that he shared me own diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder. That's a bad diagnosis if You Are The NRA.
I have an Idaho state gun safety card and my father was a Naval officer so I know how to handle a gun with complete safety. but I don't go near the things not because I would fail the background check but because I know very well that the day would be bound to come when I start shooting at my own hallucinations.
I have a close friend who is licensed for concealed carry because her clients are suchnwarm fuzzy people. She takes all the same medicines I do yet is completely unaware that she is severely in the grip of paranoid schizophrenia.
I hallucinate on a regular basis but for reason I have been struggling to figure out for decades I always can readily distinguish between what I really see and what my mind makes me experience as seeing. note that that does not make the hallucinations go away, it just enables me to sanitize my input.
But rather frightening to me is that a whole bunch of times my friend gas pointed out her hallucinations to me then either gone chasing after them or fled from them.
The federal gun background check is completely cool with batshit crazy people purchasing all manner of powerful firearms. bur perfectly sane people check into psychiatric inpatient units for reasons that are completely resolved upon their discharge. At that point they are not permitted to possess firearms for the next five years. Not only may they not purchase any they must surrender any guns already in their possession.
I've been struggling desperately to clue my friend into the fact that she is paranoid and that she hallucinates. Even more frustrating than the drug addict's denial is that she readily agrees and in fact can discuss her madness quite insightfully, yet she remains unaware if what her medicines are prescribed for. Once we stop actively discussing her paranoia she becomes completely enmeshed in it again.
But it has to die. I never liked it... I don't think anyone ever did but it would be nice if there were some magic solution that would fix all it's problems and make it actually useful. If there were such a solution... I'd go for it.
But there isn't... it needs to be taken out back and shot. We can have a cry about that later if we want, bury it with some dignity, and move one with our lives. It's a rabid dog... it's too bad... but that's all there is to it.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
More likely someone with your same name and description 'coincidentally' ends up on the no-fly list. That way, they don't have to bother with irritations such as a judge and jury. They're probably patiently waiting for the ok to ship people strait to GITMO so they can be done with you and hopefully people like you.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
There is an Amtrack train that goes all the way from Vancouver, British Columbia to Los Angeles. I took it once from Seattle to Vancouver, Washington.
My one way ticket was fifty bucks, my seat was wide and a lot more comfortable than airplane seats, I could stretch out my legs and had no particular limit on luggage.
While a sign in the station said passengers warper subject to search I did not pass through any kind of security nor did I show anyone my ID. If I recall correctly I did not even show my ticket to the conductor until after the train was moving.
At one time you could get anywhere in America on Greyhound but long haul busses were almostvwiped out by thevairlines. How aboutbriding Greyhound and leaving the driving to us?
If you don't own a car but need to travel quite likely a rental care and gas is a lot cheaper than a plane ticket.
Train tickets, bus tickets and car rentals are fixed in or ice and require no reservations.
I need to travel one way from Vancouver to San Jose soon so I can get some stuff out if storage then bring it here in a U-Haul truck. Last time I checked two weeks advance notice to fly was over two hundred. I would rather chew my own foitboff than go through the incredibly overcrowded security at PDX. But Amtrak from Portland to Oakland is $140.00 and I can purchase my ticket right up until the train departs. From Oakland I take Bay Area Rapid Transit to Milbrae on the Pensula, the wonderful, comfortable nonbayshirparanoid CalTrain to Mountain View, then light rail to downtown San zjose. From there I can walk to this Tacqueria that rents U-Hauls on the side.
If you don't want to drive a long ways advertise on craigslist for a travel partner to split the expenses, the driving and to meet a new friend who you will enjoy getting to know during your travels.
Whenever a transportation infrastructure bond is on your ball it, vote for it. America once had wonderful public transportation but Detroit and the airlines have almost totally decimated it. Most important if all is to fund new bridges, as well as to fund the maintenance of ok'd ones.
After the interstate highway bridge between Minneapolis and st paul collapsed, killing a dozen or so people in the most incredibly cruel way and causing lasting harm to the local economy, a call went out for the oublic to turn in any photos they had ever taken of that bridge.
HiRez scans showed that many of the rivets heads on that bridge had been stretched so far our of place as long as five years before the tragedy that you could readily discern the impending failure in a casual snapshot.
I discussed thisvwith my Professional Engineer friend who specializes in highway overpasses as well as earning lots ogpf money on the side as abpn expert witness when structures designed by his colleagues get someone killed. He also did a lot of work on the repair of the Oakland Bay Bridge after the 1989 Loma Prieta Quake.
Tom told me those rivet heads in the photos could not possibly have been visibly stretched because every bridge in the land is inspected every two years. I don't doubt that but my counterarguments were trapped in their cars when they drowned in the river.
Inspected, sure. but how thoroughly? We already know that America has ten thousand bridges in desperate need of repair. How many bridges need repair thatvwe don't know about?
A debate has been raging for many years over the funding, placement and design of the proposed Columbia River Crossing that will replace the current Interstate 5 bridge. It is so narrow that a traffic jam ten solid miles long occurs every afternoon for three or four hours.
The locals are damn near ready to start shooting at local politicians because they insist it mystery be funded by bridge tolls. None of the existing bridges have tolls.
I readily agree that thosevwhonsuffer benefit from the bridge should pay for it but do not agree that those who would benefit most are those who would drive across it.
Sounds kinda hot.
So if citizens are depicted in light colors, what colors are non-citizens depicted in?
Korea? The only reason action was taken in Korea was that the Soviets boycotted the session in question, avoiding a Security Council veto. The UNC structure and DMZ are still there, 60 years on. All of the allied nations have fled except the US. There's a rousing success story.
South Korea has about 49 million people living in it. Depending on how you count it, they have the 12th or 15th highest GDP in the world . I think 49 million people would argue that it is a rousing success story. Moron. However, I do agree with your general point that the UN is mostly a legacy of failure, but your cited example of South Korea is a big time fail.
Perhaps more relevant, I'm not certain that there is any meaningful distinction between box cutters and pocket utility knives with blades under 4 inches.
And I'm not certain of the reason for banning "numchucks" but allowing pool cues.
Three ounces of pure LSD would send the entire Island of Manhattan into orbit for a solid week
I just moved to Manhattan last week. I hope they don't test this until after I get my stereo hooked up so I can play nice, psychedelic music and enjoy the trip...
When you fly as much as I do, you see these things on a regular basis. I "opt out" of the scanner machines every time. There is very little credible evidence that these machines are NOT harmful, and even if they were - do you think the TSA and our Government would ever admit that? Its all a crock.
I am continually surprised by how many people do not know that they can opt out.
No silly, that's the revolving door!
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Forgive my ignorance, I am not a frequent flier. Why don't they take side shots? Why only front and back? Wouldn't taking side shots rectify the issue?
That's a millimeter-wave scanner, not a backscatter scanner.
Overpriced? Perhaps.
Significant fucking figures cheaper than "playing the game" though.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Yes, that particular image (whipped up by a rag paper) has been shown to be a fake. But there is absolutely no reason to believe that the images released by the TSA or the manufacturers of the devices are fake. These pictures also have a black background in both the millimeter wave and the x-ray backscatter machines.
Not long ago, I flew across the country, departing from one of the busiest airports in the US and arriving without issue. A few days into my trip, I found that while packing I had overlooked a locking, folding pocket knife that was sitting in the side pocket of my carry-on bag. How it was not caught by the x-ray scanners boggles me. The blade is 3.4" long for god's sake - it's not a small knife.
There's always room for human error on the part of the TSA drones and no method is 100% reliable. However, the simple fact that travelers padding around in their socks are subjected to ionizing radiation, ball-cupping pat-downs, absurd liquids policies and the rest of the bogus obstacle course, while a full size pocket knife skates through the x-rays is infuriating. I'm preaching to the choir here on Slashdot.
Everybody has their own anecdotes about TSA's misgivings or incompetence and I'm not optimistic that anything is going to change anytime soon.
In Amsterdam, where they use the L3 scanner, and have the image shown to the security guy right on the back side of the scanner (where I could see it as well), the metal I had on me (coins I forgot in my pocket), and the papers I had in my shirt pocket showed up as bright yellow, over a white image of the person being scanned, and a black background.
I opt out everywhere I'm selected for the scanner in the US. This was not possible in Amsterdam. In fact, they weren't even familiar with the concept of opting out. The security woman there said to me, when I asked to opt out, "whataya got a big d*** or something?" (Yes, she seriously said that).
Last time I opted out in San Francisco (2 weeks ago), I whistled "My Country 'Tis of Thee" during the pat down. No reaction from the patter-downer. My brother did the same in Tennessee and heard one of the TSA guys say to another, "this is turning into a religion...."
In Salt Lake City, they had one line for the scanner (the others went to metal detectors, and a second body scanner was not in use at all), and I heard the guy say "if you don't want to go through the scanner, go into one of the other lines." I don't think that's how it's supposed to work. Maybe someone can confirm or correct me.
Being sweaty standing in the intentionally long line at the Airport(because they only open 1 or 2 xray lines when they have 8 and its Monday morning), I can always count on an additional pat-down because of some sweat on my back or in my hair. But if I carry a knife clipped in my pants I don't even get looked at funny. Now I know why...
Statistically the chances of being killed/injured while flying are extremely low--much safer than driving a car.
Really, it should make you pissed off at all the wasted money and lost freedom.
If having the metal object on the "side" of your body results in it not being seen in the standard "front-side" image, then it will show up very clearly if they take a side-on image. All they'd have to do is take the standard front-side image of you (typically only a couple of seconds), then ask you to turn 90 degrees, and take another image (another couple of seconds). This way they could never miss a metal object being "hidden" on your side.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
What is to say the automated threat detection is working with the same image data that is presented to the operator? Perhaps it works with some raw data before the image is generated. Say each pixel is labelled as representing either a non-metal object, a metal object, or background. The last two are both rendered on screen as black, which is a bit silly, but the automated detection could be working with the raw enumerated values. Ok, I'm sure the full system is a lot more complicated, but it does cast doubt over statements suggesting threats would be invisible to the automated detection.
No stars - horrible show. I want my money back.
Check your premises.
I don't get why they choose to implement this technology at the larger airports, and tell us this will make us "safer".
If you had any contraband that only these new scanners could detect, why wouldn't you just get a connecting flight from one of the hundreds of smaller airports around the country that do not use these scanners? Doesn't it really have to be all-or-none to actually be "safer"???
Oh god you know what that means! *shares on social media* Problem solved.