Posts Tagged: TSA

Blogging — View Comments
26
Jan 10

Free luggage protection courtesy of the TSA

Are you worried about your luggage getting lost? Carrying expensive camera or computer gear and want to make sure it arrives at your destination?
Try this (by Bruce Schneier):

“I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare…I’m given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.

That’s the procedure. The case is extra-tracked…TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

It’s a great way to travel with camera gear…I’ve been doing this since Dec 2001 and have had no problems whatsoever.”

That’s probably the most creative way of getting the TSA to actually do something useful ;)

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7
Jan 10

Department of Security Theatre

Brilliant: Bruce Schneier writes about a contest for a new TSA logo:

“Let’s do it. I’m announcing the TSA Logo Contest. Rules are simple: create a TSA logo. People are welcome to give ideas in the comments, but only actual created logos are eligible to compete. (When my website administrator wakes up, I’ll ask him how we can post images in the comments.) Contest ends on February 6th. Winner receives copies of my books, copies of Patrick Smith’s book, an empty 12-ounce bottle labeled “saline” that you can refill and get through any TSA security checkpoint, and a fake boarding pass on any flight for any date.”

Here’s the first entry:

Blogging — View Comments
6
Nov 07

Airline Liquids Ban works!

As the UK House Of Lords has found out:

“The fact that there has not been a serious incident involving liquid explosives indicates, I would have thought, that the measures that we have put in place so far have been very effective.”

Ah, that’s how. On which basis the measures against asteroid strike, alien invasion and unexplained nationwide floods of deadly boiling custard have also been remarkably effective.

It gets better:

But the wily second Baron Elton – one of that rather unique class of only-in-Blighty legislators, the elected hereditary peers* – delivered a telling blow, with a question many of us have wanted to ask at airports. “What damage can be done by 105 millilitres of liquid that cannot be done by 100 millilitres of liquid?” he snapped, testily.

This completely floored Baron Bassam. “My briefing does not extend to that,” muttered the confused government toff. “I suspect that this is based on science.”

Ah, science. That’s all right then.

Blogging — View Comments
18
Oct 07

Bruce Schneier: Q&A at DefCon15

Great stuff. Some quotes:

  • Are you defending us against terrorists that are too stupid to google “fly without id”
  • Even if the cryptography sucks – it’s not worth bothering – something else sucks more.

Also available as a download for your iPod or PSP

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14
Dec 06

Wil Wheaton doesn’t like security theater

(But then again – who does). I also learned through his post that there’s now a Wikipedia entry on security theater.

But to get to the point:

“I ran into this idiotic bullshit when I flew up to San Francisco last week, when my deadly, deadly toothpaste was taken away from me, because it was “way bigger” than the three ounces our government protectors arbitrarily-designated as safe. (For those of you scoring at home, “way bigger” is .2 ounces) I didn’t mention that my relatively expensive (to its size) Crew hair goop was also taken away from me, because it was 3.4 ounces, even when I opened it up and showed them that it was less than 1/2 full, and therefore well under the deadly 3 ounce threshold.
[...]
I swear to god, if I hear one more fucking person tell me that I have to take off my shoes or give up some more privacy, or fall to my knees and worship George Bush so we don’t have “another 9/11″ I’m going to put three ounces of my foot right in their ass. Stop. Treating. Us. Like. Children.
[...]
O RLY? You mean, even though chemists said that the deadly toothpaste plot wouldn’t work, the DHS ignored them and went ahead with a bunch of bullshit propaganda (that had nothing to do with the election, I’m sure) and TSA security theater? Wow. What a shock. I hope someone increased the DHS budget so they can spend another $81,000 of taxpayer money on plaques in some stupid bullshit awards ceremony! Heckuva job, people. Heckuva job.”

Can you tell he’s pissed…? ;)

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22
Nov 06

No bullets on the plane!

Cartoon

(Via Bruce Schneier)

People really do need to stand up and fight this nonsense. It’s ridiculous, it doesn’t make us any safer, and the delays are bad for the economy.

Security — View Comments
12
Feb 06

The Silent Penguin’s Flight Plan

Looks like Matthew nearly took part in an action movie ;)

Seriously – “he avoided my eye-contact” creates a level one threat? This is going too far. This is probably the next step. All this just to uphold a state of fear?

Completely ridiculous. I think every airline passenger experiencing something like this should write a complaint letter to their airline. I hope Matthew rembered to wear an “I’m not a terrorist” T-Shirt.