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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.
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.
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?
... 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
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?
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...
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I don't see the separation of church and state as a problem.
If you want religion in your state, be prepared for the state being in your religion.
Be careful what you wish for.
--
BMO
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).
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
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.
"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?