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Homeland Security: New Body Scanners Have Issues
Fluffeh writes "Although the DHS has spent around $90 million upgrading magnetometers to the new body scanners, federal investigators 'identified vulnerabilities in the screening process' at domestic airports using the new machines, according to a classified internal Department of Homeland Security report. Exactly how bad the body scanners are is not being divulged publicly, but the Inspector General's report (PDF) made eight separate recommendations on how to improve screening. To quiet privacy concerns, the authorities are also spending $7 million to 'remove the human factor from the image review process' and replace the passenger's image with an avatar."
This is getting to the point of ridiculousness due to the another article bringing up issues with the body scanners. The public really needs to send letters and sign petitions in mass to get rid of this expensive cancer causing paper weights.
When the imperfection means you can casually walk onto a plane with a pocketful of 12 inch blades, then it's worth taking a bit of notice.
Oh no... it's the future.
When they said they were removing the "human factor" I assumed that meant they were removing the TSA agents looking at the images and replacing it with some kind of image analysis software... not slapping the equivalent of a black bar over the naughty bits.
Also, I'm surprised they only estimate it to cost $7 mil... seems like it's not enough for sufficient profits even with the inevitable budget overruns.
I certainly hope replacing the passenger's naked photo with a paper doll isn't enough to "quiet" the privacy concerns.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Actually, they're hiring Cameron to replace the images with the blue guys from Avatar.
If this is not like the technology "displayed" in Total Recall it will never be acceptable.
How did these officials ever think the technology as deployed was even remotely acceptable? Yet people never seem to get the hint that the bigger the government the less it really has to care.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
1. introduce stupid, useless, expensive technology
2. profit
3. fix it
4. profit
5. it is useless after all
6. goto 1
Do we at least get to customize our avatar as one can on many websites?
The thing is we don't know how imperfect it is. Considering these machines allegedly broke a medical device in recent news. Considering that U.S. citizens are being made to go through humiliating procedures that these machines are a part of and may or may not work well? "Exactly how bad the body scanners are is not being divulged publicly" is a big thing.
Also $90 million? That is $90 million less towards the debt. That is $90 million that could be towards STEM promotion in education. That is $90 million that is money that could have been used as an incentive or subsidy to get businesses to hire more employees (if you believe in trickle down) or applied to the people directly (if you believe in trickle up). That $90 million could pay ~5500 people to work for one year at minimum wage.
Whether you think it could go elsewhere or no where, why spend it on a program that isn't working? That's just direct cost anyways.
Think about how many people fly. Let's make this easier, how many people fly for business. How much time is wasted going through this extra security that may or may not be working to suitable levels. Multiple that extra time by their salaries. That is another economic hit.
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
That $90 million would never go to education, or subsidies, or trickle up/down strategies. The government has a pathological need to avoid spending money where it's needed most, in favor of spending it on stuff like these body scanners that don't even work properly.
Dad joke win!
... along the lines of "if they did this avatar thing from the beginning the TSA maybe would have only earned half the animosity they deserve" and go on about how sometimes focus groups actually work that might bring out, you know, glaring errors in design.
But you know what? That doesn't fucking matter. What matters is that the American Public is crisis fatigued out. I am crisis fatigued. I turned on the news yesterday to find out that we discovered another underwear bomber and that the design was "sophisticated" and a dog and pony show was trotted out on the Today show by the fucking CIA.
I want you, every one of you, to ask yourselves, when was the last time the CIA did intelligence press releases? It's like science by press release - you get bogus shit like cold fusion because what it's really about is someone trying to stoke his budget.
And that's what it's all about. It's just corporate welfare and agency empire building, marketed through fear. On a societal level I can't think of anything more evil except waging war through bogus excuses all the way from the Gulf of Tonkin to GWB's "weapons of mass destruction" bullshit.
And we're going to shovel good money after bad because so many honest, hard working people are just trying to get through life without increasing the rage factor and generating more heart disease worrying about shit like this.
Jeg opgiv.
I am so disheartened.
--
BMO
Postscript:
About sophistication:
The fucking Soviet Union of the 1980s could launch nuclear tipped missiles and have them explode over a US city with an accuracy of a couple of feet and this was entirely credible. Comparing the war on terror enemies to the enemy of the Cold War, I do not find any fucking sophistication. Yesterday's announcement of more underwear bombs paired with the word "sophisticated" made me want to scream. What an abuse of language. What fucking Newspeak. What fucking doublethink.
How to stop a determined suicide bomber getting onto a flight with a device powerful enough to down the plane ... you can't it's impossible
All the security at airports does two things only :
1) makes the passengers feel safe enough so that they will continue to fly (this is debatable...)
2) deter all but the most determined and clever enough terrorists ...who hopefully the government are already aware of by other means
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
To help pay off the deficit, the TSA is now offering lead-lined paper bags to cover your face when going through the strip search machine. At an affordable $15 a piece, it is a small price to pay for privacy.
sudo make me a sandwich
You know... since we could spend the $90 million on hiring subsidies that will really just fund companies that would be hiring anyway, or giving a single dollar to one third of the country's population, why not spend it elsewhere, like supporting America's technology industry? We could be funding the software and other engineers who are needed to fix the machines.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Why? What's he going to do with them that he couldn't do on the ground?
You can't hijack a plane and crash it into a building anymore. That shit stopped working before 9/11 was even over. Why should I give a fuck if another passenger has a pocketknife? I don't care if they have a pocketknife on a bus, do I?
"To quiet privacy concerns, the authorities are also spending $7 million to 'remove the human factor from the image review process' and replace the passenger's image with an avatar."
http://www.imaxmelbourne.com.au/images/uploads/Avatar/Avatar-BIG-1.jpg
"Sorry, buddy, you're gonna have to check that bow."
You forgot
3) treats small children and little old ladies like terrorism suspects because their 15 minute training video neglected to mention that their standard issue plastic badge and 12-pack of Krispy Kremes are not substitutes for common sense.
I 'll play devil's advocate below- so, under the assumption that the TSA and their paraphernalia are vital in present-day USA:
.. spending millions [..] upgrading magnetometers to the new body scanners ..
As most of you probably know, the "new scanner" operates at the THz range: that wavelength is being exploited because a) it "sees" through clothes and b) it gives a nice contrast.
A little more detail: the incoming radiation mostly penetrates clothing both in its way in and out -- i.e., penetrates clothing in its way in, does not penetrate skin and instead gets reflected back, it then passes again through clothing on its way out and gets registered on the machine. Now, other material (say a ceramic knife, that does not register in the magnetometer) or a "suspicious" looking box strapped on the body, will reflect the incoming THz radiation but on a different way: by taking advantage of this, a contrast image can be constructed, and what is not skin becomes conspicuous. So you can obvisouly see why this is something an authority appreciates, and you would be in denial if you don't believe that the scanners are here to stay. Sorry, but now they have established their foothold in reality, so you have to learn to get used to them being around for quite a while.
.. spending $7 million [to] replace the passenger's image with an avatar
Okay, now I am done playing advocate- my points:
a) $7 million for software development seems a lot in the expensive side, or so I think. Anyway the federal budget for toilet paper is probably higher. And
b) most importantly, couldn't that had been implemented from the start of the project, out of respect for the citizen? I mean, how hard can it be? Is there a reason why this "extra humiliation" factor had to linger around for so long?
c) I wouldn't hate TSA so much: the guilt will be hard to cope with once the cumulative radiation damage becomes apparent on its not very bright staff. I don't think there will ever be a concensus regarding the damage one gets (or not) from the respective radiation: just see how after more than a decade the cellphone radiation is still supposed to be under debate, and how results are "inconlcusive".
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
I know everybody is hung up on 'oh noes, that tsa screener is going to see a blue image of my naked body'. Am I the only one that feels sorry for the guy/gal that actually has to sit all day and watch naked blue bodies? for every swedish bikini model that passes, i you have at least 10 overweight slobs. How can the screener ever have sex again after staring at these blobs going by day in, day out?
I doubt al Qaeda had any intention of this bomb going off. They put it in somebody's underwear, just so Americans would now have to strip to get on a plane. Government officials need to stop going on TV and saying that the terrorists "hate freedom." Because they do. And if the terrorist's goal is to attack freedom, guess what, government? YOU'RE LETTING THEM WIN. Put an X-Ray machine, a Geiger counter, and a dog at every terminal in the country. That's it. When the terrorists have a bomb that isn't made of metal AND is made of a chemical the dog can't detect, send a sample of that chemical to every airport in the country, and teach the dogs to smell that too.
I have issues! And no one is giving me $90M to fix them...
Yet ANOTHER reason to get rid of the TSA. We waste dollar after dollar on that stupid agency. And according to their own stats, we're no safer now than in 2001. Moreover, from a constitutional standpoint:
1. The Federal govt has the right to secure the borders -- this is the job for border patrol, NOT the TSA
2. Inter-state flights - not within Federal jurisdiction
3. That leaves flights that go across state lines, but do not leave the US.
The only place where the TSA arguably should have any authority is #3. And if we do #1, #2, and track & deport known terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, then the need for #3 becomes very minimal.
Let's face it, the TSA is filled with a bunch of inept, under-achieving goons, who have shaky justification for their jobs (at best) and should be replaced with private security companies. Such companies could be under appropriately laws to make sure they can be prosecuted for violating the 4th amendment, civil liberties, etc. and they'd have plenty of incentives to do things right...
OK, rant ended.
When the imperfection means you can casually walk onto a plane with a pocketful of 12 inch blades, then it's worth taking a bit of notice.
But at least they protect the other passengers from your dangerous insulin pump.
Just think of it as an oncology research subsidy. Having a larger patient pool will mean more demand and also more research subjects.
2) deter all but the most determined and clever enough terrorists ...
There's nothing particularly clever about beating security - the C4 goes in the same body cavities as people use every day to get drugs and cellphones into prisons.
Or if you prefer liquid explosives, just get several people with permitted-size bottles of liquid to go through and combine the liquid in a bigger bottle (or plastic bag) on the other side.
Or...any of many other obvious ways to do it.
As for determination...they're religious whacko suicide bombers. Enough said?
(All this assumes that terrorists are magically impotent if they can't get through Airport security, which is laughable...just bomb the queues for the scanners)
No sig today...
In this case, it won't mostly go to that- and it's being spent on a system with dubious use to begin with.
Sorry...it's money that could and SHOULD be spent elsewhere.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
it is fun to dismiss this so casually, but when you look at the fact that the company that was awarded the money is tightly integrated, if not owned outright, by former members of government, then this becomes corruption of the highest order. Just by having a few friends in good places, you can get a $90 million contract for things that dont do their primary purpose as well as what was already in place. In government terms, this isnt a huge amount of money, at the personal level of the crooks pushing this scam on us, it is an enormous amount of MY money. Hang them I say
Do you want to date my avatar...
Perhaps this will increase the job satisfaction and reduce depression amongst TSA screeners. Seriously...who would want that job? For every 1 person they might want to see naked and put their hands on...they are required to look at and feel up a hundred more that they would rather just run away from.
Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Surely this computer must submit also!
Perhaps you should be. Not that I really think people should be so worried about this kind of stuff. If the terrorists wanted to cause problems, there's so many other things they could blow up than air planes. Taking a bomb on a passenger train would probably cause just as much, if not more damage than taking one on an airplane.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
So does the average TSA agent view Bin Laden's killing the same way that they probably view the moon landings?
The thing is , it wont stop the terrorist plan that accounts for these machines. The machines stopped you from wearing a belt buckle and carrying your train pass through. There are documented cases of metal blades getting through. Fortunately the blades ( and your belt buckle ) were not intended for maicious use. It is also forutnate that in both of these cases the hardened cockpit doors would have prevented a major tragedy that is only possible on or with an airplane. You could use the knife to hack up people in a confined area, but you can also do that in a shopping mall or high school.
If you want to just call this a jobs program for all those tax payers, then that is fine, but there is no reason to actually use the crap that those people have built.
I mean, what a great mind-fuck to AQ. What if they caught the guy, stuck him in a cell in a friendly country, then decided that they'd do a little psychological warfare and said this guy was a double agent all along. I mean, if there aren't any embedded agents, why not freak them out and have them wondering how many people are working for the other side?
And it seems odd that they out a double agent as intentionally one, not just some poor schmuck that got compromised.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Right, because radicalized old ladies would never blow up a plane: they have too much to live for.
If you truly feel that "radicalized old ladies" are that much of a threat to our society, then please come forth with your blue-haired statistics before Congress.
Toss something in there about why we won't "think of the children", and you'll have a nice one-two whammy to hit common sense with.
As part of the larger pattern of US Corp/Gov't actions, it's the only answer that makes sense.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Yes, and let's break all our windows to give work to the glaziers.
This is the same thing that the TSA previously dismissed as "some guy" making a "crude attempt" at getting around screening procedures. At least they are acknowledging it now.
http://blog.tsa.gov/2012/03/viral-video-about-body-scanners.html
They have also said that these things are completely safe despite inadequate testing. Or that there are sufficient procedures in place to protect people's privacy. I wonder how long it will take for them to change their minds on that too.
Please, they'll see an Arabic man with a beard and turban, they won't care who it is.
It was sensitive enough to pick up my wallet in my back pocket which contained no metal other than what is found inside of credit cards and my Patco FreedomCard train pass. It also picked up my belt buckle... small and thin... not one of those WWF styles.
Notice that all of those things were on the front or back of your body. Anything on the side - where your body is not a backdrop to provide contrast - is practically invisible to the machine.
if those $90 million machines prevent just one terrorist plot that may not have been picked up by the previous generation of detectors, then it will have paid for itself multiple times over.
What if they don't make any difference at all? You know the TSA has not caught one single terrorist since the creation of the agency. Not one. They have, however, really decimated the dignity of the american traveler.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
So, I choose the Dr. Manhattan avatar and the whole things starts all over again.
"Contrarily the lookaside buffer might not be the panacea... "
Exactly. All government spending is just returning money to the public, in one form or another. It doesn't "create" jobs, it doesn't "subsidize" anything in the long run.
My point is that arguments about all the things the money could do are equally ridiculous. The one thing the money should do is never be collected from the public in the first place, but it's too late for that.
That is $90 million that could be towards STEM promotion in education. That is $90 million that is money that could have been used as an incentive or subsidy to get businesses to hire more employees (if you believe in trickle down) or applied to the people directly (if you believe in trickle up). That $90 million could pay ~5500 people to work for one year at minimum wage.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
The BBC report on it is so sensational that it's reminiscent of Monty Python's "How not to be seen": "This is what could have happened if the underwear bomber had succeeded.... BOOM!" Priceless.
The guy didn't have a target, had no target or plane ticket. It was,"Even more sophisticated than the last one!" Ah yes, more sophisticated because it used a shiny silver button instead of a switch? Yes let's all get worried.
-
WAT? You do realize that I was making fun of you by using the broken windows fallacy?
Investing in STEM education is an actual investment in the productivity of our nation. Paying glaziers to fix our windows is not an investment.
Teach a man to fish. Give a man a fish. Teaching a man to fish is useful. Just giving him fish is not as useful (unless, of course, not having fish is the only thing holding him back.)
That's the problem with separation of church and state. The government cannot use religion to inflict fear to get people to conform, so they have to resort to other tactics such as the war on terror. When people in power keep people in fear, the people in power can pretty much do whatever they want, whether church or state.
And most importantly: 4) Create a large, unsecured crowd, that would be ideal for a random bombing that would also effectively shut down an airport and possibly the nation (think O'Hare's security checkpoints bombed).
Yes. The only reason any of us do not slaughter hundreds of innocent men, women, and children with a suicide bomb is because we have so much to live for. Very logical. That's why every suicide attempt always includes multiple homicides. Because if you're gonna die you may as well take as many people with you as possible. It's amazing that blowing yourself up in a particularly long and winding security line at the airport isn't more popular than it is. Thank god we have brave pedophile peeping tom pervs to protect us. They aren't working there to see naked 10 year old girls and touch people's genitals. They are there because they want to keep us safe. And anyone who questions that is a 'domestic extremist' who needs to be watched very closely by Homeland Security.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Why don't they change the background to some pattern rather than solid black? Wouldn't that eliminate the problem where you strap something on your side and it doesn't show?
Posting to undo a incorrect mod. /sigh I liked the old system where one misclick didn't instantly moderate a comment. Now, I have to post to undo 1 bad mod, and forfeit the other 6 posts I moderated.
On the other hand, all this "security" does force bad people to work a little harder to bypass it. And that extra work means more chances to foil plots before they hatch. Someone mentioned the possibility of combining many small containers of liquid explosive into a larger bomb. Which would probably work if they all made it through. But it would require several conspirators instead of a single one, leading to several more ways for the plan to fall apart, hopefully before it even got to the airport.
Pat down everyone! Just take every single person and give them a full body pat down, they do it at concerts after all. If you can't do the job using technology then do it by hand.
If you buy that government bureaucracy will make more productive choices than the free market.
Which it very well might, but just assuming the conclusion doesn't really make for a compelling argument.
So do you know what your radiation exposure was for this machine? Since they won't tell us... or let anyone test it, I am going to say no. In which case stopping just one terrorist is absolutely *not* worth it. By that logic just ground all planes forever. It will stop one... I promise. Oh and I have this rock which will keep you safe in the mall.
If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
Maybe we have too many politicians and they're stinking up the place. Give a few away, suddenly things are smelling better.
FTFY :)
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
http://twitpic.com/3djlet
Have gnu, will travel.
if these scanners were really about safety then pass a bill that the makers of them cannot make a profit and no executive in the company can make more than $150k per year (total compensation).
as for your number 1), more like "Help make flying so unpleasant you don't bother to fly anywhere and just drive instead." as for 2) The terrorists don't need to blow anything up anymore to scare americans, just let someone get caught trying something and the hysteria rips into the gov who continue to perpetuate the scam of the TSA....
Forget O'Hare, America is a consumer culture, blow up the folks trying to already kill each other to get the newest "Tickle Me Elmo" at midnight at Walmart on Black Friday. You wanna scare American's? Hit them where they live and breathe....
The airport in Bozeman, Montana did at least.
The screen shows just a generic outline with a highlighted area of where something was detected.
However, this doesn't end the privacy concerns. The device still has a full-res picture (visualization) in it, it just doesn't put it on the screen. And I don't believe for a minute that the device doesn't store the picture despite what they say. If I were designing the system, I'd store the picture at least for a couple days.
What happens if they are doing testing where they try to sneak weapons on board and they make it on? You would want the data so it can be analyzed after the fact to see why the system didn't detect them. What happens if a plane blows up? You would want to look at the images to see if the software missed a carried device.
There's no way you'd just throw the data away, it really harms your capability to improve the system over time.
So I still have privacy concerns.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Why do you think that picture is anybody but some random taxi driver in NYC that's been moderately Photoshopped?
(Assuming this whole silly story has any basis in fact.)
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
And if you truly feel there are not people out there that would use old ladies as a threat if they knew that was the weak link in our security process, you are delusional.
What, you didn't see this ground-breaking documentary on this very problem?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
I could have designed an equally useful and 100% safe system for far less:
1) Put up prop booths with no real functionality
2) Tell everyone it is a sophisticated scanning system when it is actually just a prop.
3) Pay people to occaisonally go through and "get caught", thereby reinforcing the illusion.
4) Profit!
Then again, I suppose there is a good chance that is exactly what they are already doi*(#&)^)$^NO CARRIER
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Or the agent pretty much started the whole bomb plot to justify TSA and defense spending.
Just opt out people. As has been pointed out before, if enough people would just elect to bypass this mess, then the machines would be gone.
Twenda Learning: Educational Apps that Engage.
"assumes that terrorists are magically impotent" So those aren't the kinds of issues that we are having with the scanners? Makes me breathe a sigh of relief.
"my avatar has brass knuckles. 2 points."
"fool, kneel before me! my avatar has two rocket launchers, 99 energy points, and ten grenades!"
meanwhile, far behind, the $8-an-hour "agents" are hassling a little old lady with a walker and leading another Congressman into the back room holding cells for having a tie clasp.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I'm a bit suspicious of your nearly 100% positive review of these machines. They have been proven to have a 50% false positive rate and they only work for things like wallets and belt buckles and not for flat pancakes of plastic explosive taped to your sides and maybe your stomach and back as well. You did read about Jon Corbett's test right?
So if you are interested in seeing who has the fattest wallets to steal from they are superb machines. If you want to prevent people from bringing high explosives on the aircraft they're not so good.Metal detectors are much better at detecting weapons. Neither machine is likely to detect explosives, but the metal detector has a better chance of detecting a detonator.
I would personally be willing to use a millimeter wave scanner with the auto detection software. I am not willing to use the x-ray machines or the mmw machines without the detection software. Nor am I willing to have my balls and ass crack fondled by some drooling horny closet homosexual. If the mmw false positives on me I would be willing to accept a very quick non-invasive, non-genital patdown. No touching "where the leg meets the body". No hands even near the crotch area. No scalp massages or under the waistband touching and no hands sliding up and down my crack. If the screener tries to sexually assault me by touching my genitals without my permission then my fist will meet his face. I have every right to defend myself against sexual assault.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
... this freaking DHS + TSA clusterfuck already? Have they done anything better than what was done before without being completely moronic, stupid, and wasting money. As for post 9/11, all you had to do was coordinate the then-existing agencies together better. (I actually was working on a project for that, until the DHS was launched) It's madness. You know what "hope and change" what could have been? Get rid of this crap.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Anything on the side...is practically invisible to the machine.
"Face left."
Problem solved; give me $90m.
as for your number 1), more like "Help make flying so unpleasant you don't bother to fly anywhere and just drive instead." as for 2) The terrorists don't need to blow anything up anymore to scare americans, just let someone get caught trying something and the hysteria rips into the gov who continue to perpetuate the scam of the TSA....
Why do you think all of the terrorists that get caught are doing it with bombs supplied by the government. If you don't have real terrorists to fight, then you can't justify the expense of the TSA and the scanners. But if you talk a few people into taking this fake bomb and then arrest them you get some free news coverage and a renewed sense of fear in the populous. Is seems so obvious that is amazes me that more people don't realize what is happening. Even the latest bomb that was stopped was actually an undercover agent that had it. It makes me wonder if the attacks on 9-11 were faked also.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
There are so many weak links in our security that old ladies are hardly the first on the list. People have walked onto planes (through TSA checkpoints, complete with their vaunted X-ray machines and patdowns) with knives and even guns. Not to mention that one doesn't even need to get to the plane - just synchronously detonate several strap-on shrapnel bombs at the checkpoints of any busy airport.
Or if you prefer liquid explosives, just get several people with permitted-size bottles of liquid to go through and combine the liquid in a bigger bottle (or plastic bag) on the other side.
It's even easier than that: you put it in one large bottle, and label that "saline solution".
"Face left."
Problem solved; give me $90m.
Now you have doubled the amount of time spent being scanned - remember the machines are intended to speed up the process. You've also doubled the amount of radiation exposure too.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Well, damn the side effects, I solved the problem! But I thought the idea was to harass people and make money. If they want to speed things up then they can just close the theater.
Yeah, the government isn't doing itself any favors at this point, they're just pushing a little too hard and people are waking up to the fact that the emperor has no clothes...