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Experts Warn About Security Flaws In Airline Boarding Passes
concealment writes in with a story about a newly found security issue with the bar codes on boarding passes. "Flight enthusiasts, however, recently discovered that the bar codes printed on all boarding passes — which travelers can obtain up to 24 hours before arriving at the airport — contain information on which security screening a passenger is set to receive.
Details about the vulnerability spread after John Butler, an aviation blogger, drew attention to it in a post late last week. Butler said he had discovered that information stored within the bar codes of boarding passes is unencrypted, and so can be read in advance by technically minded travelers.
Simply by using a smartphone or similar device to check the bar code, travelers could determine whether they would pass through full security screening, or the expedited process."
http://puckinflight.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/security-flaws-in-the-tsa-pre-check-system-and-the-boarding-pass-check-system/
Once you pass passport checks the 'security' on entering Australia is to do with biological security. A US national entering from a US flight is low risk for carrying biological hazards like viable seeds, eggs, infested timber products etc. Had you entered on a flight you joined in Africa or Asia, or been a Chinese national (think suitcase full of traditional remedies), they would likely have X-rayed everything for biological matter. We have stiff penalties for failing to declare prohibited biological items.
Security on leaving Australia bound for the US is largely dictated by US policy.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
Bingo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_Security_Screening_Selection
I got into an argument with a customer service representative (and flew standby -- not sure which was responsible) and received this.
this only applies to the TSA who actually scan and pass people around the security scanning solution based on the results of what is in the barcode. in europe, you always have to go through scanning process, regardless of what your 2D barcode has encoded within in. all the TSA is doing here, is opening up a chance for terrorists based on local soil to get through the security scanning process simpler. the challenge is that the USA has the most number of travelers through the airline system than anywhere else in the world; doing extensive security checks does choke the system - so, they need to try and filter out the more frequent/trusted flyers, the net result is they are wasting time screening some since they done screen everyone.
Not likely to be long at all. Here's wikipedia's take on Chris Soghoian's tale:
On October 26, 2006, Soghoian created a website that allowed visitors to generate fake boarding passes for Northwest Airlines. While users could change the boarding document to have any name, flight number or city that they wished, the generator defaulted to creating a document for Osama Bin Laden.
Soghoian claimed that his motivation for the website was to focus national attention on the ease with which a passenger could evade the no-fly lists.[3] Information describing the security vulnerabilities associated with boarding pass modification had been widely publicized by others before, including Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)[4][5] and security expert Bruce Schneier.[6] Soghoian received media attention for posting a program on his website to enable the automatic production of modified boarding passes. Democrat Edward Markey, House of Representatives committee (telecommunications and the internet) stated Soghoian should be arrested.[2]
At 2 AM on October 28, 2006, his home was raided by agents of the FBI to seize computers and other materials.[7] Soghoian's Internet Service Provider voluntarily shut down the website, after it received a letter from the FBI claiming that the site posed a national security threat.[8] The FBI closed the criminal investigation in November 2006 without filing any charges.[9] The TSA also initiated a civil investigation in December 2006,[10][11] which was closed without any charges being filed in June 2007.[12][13]
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
When I entered Australia as a U.S. citizen studying abroad I was waved through security. I'm still not sure why, but I don't think it had anything do with my boarding pass showing me as definitely not a terrorist.
You mean you were treated like a human being? In the rest of the world that's what we call "normal".
No sig today...
quite possible, as Bruce Schneier explains in detail.
I am officially gone from