The flight is boarding and you are in a rush. You get on the plane. At 10,000 feet, you reach into your bag. Your laptop is not there.
It happens all the time. In fact, according to a new survey, more than 8,000 devices at seven of the largest airports in the country, including: Chicago O’Hare, Denver International, San Francisco International, Charlotte Douglas, Miami International… → Read More
It looks like the TSA has found itself at the center of another storm. In other news, I understand that stars are hot sometimes. New tests show that the scanners the TSA has deployed around the country at “at least” 78 airports show radiation levels way beyond what was expected. We’re talking 10 times higher. But don’t fret: the TSA says the test results are flawed, and that the machines truly… → Read More
Designed by John Kubasek, the Creditor carbon fiber money clip knife can keep you and your money safe from theft. The minimal design is really neat, and looks great. The material makeup is carbon fiber and titanium. By pressing down on the side of the handle, a 6-inch knife appears. A knife/money clip; great idea, right? Except when you try to make it past the TSA. → Read More
Curious about exactly how the TSA manages to see you naked? Well, the actual technology is pretty high end (and proprietary), but it is possible to come up with something close. The process is quite complicated, and the person who worked out the process hasn’t documented it completely, but you can get the basic idea from the video after the jump. → Read More
Now that Wikileaks has everyone in the US angrily jumping up and down, there’s one story that’s bound to die a death: the TSA. It’s pretty clear that the so-called Opt Out Day was a failure of XFL proportions, but the reason it was a failure may actually because the TSA simply wanted to avoid a scene. Twitter was full of reports saying that those silly machines were turned off just to expedite… → Read More
Just the other day, we saw the boxer-briefs with built-in radiation-blocking fig leaf. If that was a little too Biblical for you (or you just didn’t like the style), check out these sweet 4th Amendment shirts, printed with a metallic dye that will show up on scans. → Read More
Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, says that increased security measures may have to expand beyond the nation’s airports if we’re ever to fully protect ourselves from evildoers. Napolitano, seen here, told Charlie Rose, of PBS, that the nation’s subways and train depots may be the next target of TSA‘s efforts. Think of it: every time you hop on the A train in New York City you’d need… → Read More
In case you’re confused by @tsagov, @tsabloggerbob, @tsaagent, @TSAsupervisor, @tsablog and the countless other parody accounts, the real Transportation Safety Administration is actually on Twitter at @TSABlogTeam and wow, talk about the worst social media job ever.
For those of you who haven’t been following along, the Internet has been one big anti-TSA flash mob ever since the TSA implemented… → Read More
Finally, some common sense when it comes to airline security. Pilots will henceforth be exempt from security screenings at airports. This includes those highly invasive enhanced pat-downs that have been used post-ink toner plot. → Read More
It’s pretty clear that we’re now living in a society that’s dominated by fear, not unlike Midgar in Final Fantasy VII or City 17 in Half-Life 2. A Los Angeles “food stylist” (I assume that’s a fancy way of saying chef) was pulled off a flight the other day because someone thought he was “acting suspicious.” What, pray tell, was suspicious about the man? Oh, you know, his tattoos… → Read More
Leave it to the Taiwanese news to really nail the TSA debates: If Jesus is against you, who can be for you? → Read More
Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, said yesterday that she’s “open” to possible airport security “adjustments.” This, on the day that John Tnler became an Internet sensation with his videos showing the sheer black-is-white-up-is-down mentality of the TSA. Napolitano stressed that the increased security measures, prickly as they may seem, are, in fact, put in place for our… → Read More
It looks like the recent popular outrage against some of the TSA’s new (and ridiculous) airport security measures has finally gotten the government’s attention. Good. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is set to meet various transportation industry executives today to discuss how the government can balance security needs (or perceived security needs) with both common sense and the… → Read More
These airport security stories just won’t go away. Who knows, maybe if the public keeps up the pressure we’ll actually see some, you know, sanity when it comes to security policies and not merely knee-jerk reactions that are the equivalent of putting a used band-aid on a broken arm. Over in the UK, where things are certainly poised to get quite interesting, the Government’s Ministry of State for… → Read More
There’s more fallout as a result of some of the new, more aggressive security measures being taken at airports across the U.S. Yesterday there was word that the TSA had decided to ban ink toner cartridges, which is reasonably silly for a number of reasons. Now there’s word that various unions are upset with the now widespread use of full-body scanners. Le sigh. → Read More
The Transportation Security Administration has <banned ink and toner cartridges of more than 16 ounces from both carry-on bags and checked luggage on flights within the United States or in-bound to the United States. You know why: because of that incident from a few days ago where authorities found bombs hidden inside toner cartridges. → Read More
Hmm, are people beginning to rebel against those full-body scanners? There was a story in the New York Times a few days ago about what happens to people who choose to “opt-out” of subjecting themselves to the full-body scanners. High alert, we’ve got an opt-out! You’re then subjected to a pat-down search that would make the Combine blush. Nice. → Read More
Don’t you feel secure? Don’t you love the amazing level of security provided by all that sophisticated machinery at the airport, watched over as it is, admittedly, by sleepy TSA agents on power trips? But don’t you wish inwardly that they wouldn’t stop at looking through your bag and removing your clothes with radiation, and just get straight to x-raying you?
Well good news, friends. A system is… → Read More
Who saw this coming? Oh, right: most everyone. Gotcha. The Federal Government has admitted to storing those full-body scan images that had privacy advocates so worked up over the past few months. This, despite the fact that it said it wouldn’t store the images. Say one thing, do another. Yay. → Read More
Good news for iPad-owning travelers: the Transportation Security Administration says that you won’t have to remove Apple’s magical and revolutionary device from your bag while you go through airport security. That’s the official word, at least, but I can just picture the helpful staff (…) at Newark or JFK demanding you remove it from your bag anyway. → Read More
The Transportation Security Administration, ominously known as the TSA, wants to be able to track your cellphone while you go through airport security. It wants to do so in order to better understand how airport security lines work in order to streamline the process. That’s the official reason. We could always jump to conclusions and assume the TSA just wants to know where you are so the… → Read More
L3 Communications has been awarded a $165 million contract from the Transportation Security Administration for the indefinite delivery of an indefinite number of their ProVision millimeter wave security scanners. So, the TSA is sure that they’re going to get some of these, but they don’t know how many, or when. More than 200 ProVision scanners are currently deployed around the world, despite… → Read More
Another day, another airport full-body scanner story. It has emerged that the scanners are in violation of Islamic law. Now, before you get all flip and retort, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure they didn’t have microwave millimeter scanners back in the days of Muhammad,” let’s listen to what the people have to say. → Read More
Not to alarm y’all, but those millimeter wave body scanners that have been paraded around as the solution to would-be airplane terrorist attacks? Turns out they’re sorta useless in that, while they’re able to detect dense material (C4, metal, traditional bombs, etc.), they’re completely ineffective against less dense material. And wouldn’t you know it, the powdered explosive that was to have been… → Read More
Two travel bloggers, Steven Frischling and Chris Elliott received friendly visits from the Department of Homeland Security this week. Why? Because both published SD-1544-09-06, the document that showed us what to expect when we flew in scardeyplanes from now on. A reaction to the pants bomber, the document essentially outlined a few points including the directive to prevent passengers from using… → Read More
Owing to last week’s “bomb attack bid” on a U.S. airliner, there’s going to be a whole lot more security at airports. You probably already knew this. Expect long lines, confusion, malaise, and weariness. (Good thing that the entire tech world is going to be flying to Las Vegas in a couple days for CES. Leave your gadgets at home unless you want to spend 400 hours on the metal detector line.) The… → Read More
Short Version: The Commute 2.0 is from Timbuk2′s new TSA friendly generation of messenger bags. Essentially this means that they’ve added some commuter friendly features to a standard messenger bag. → Read More
Your friendly neighborhood CrunchGear writers have spent the past several minutes rifling through a de-redacted (un-redacted?) TSA handbook; Matt is going to print our hard copies and hand them out at his local farmer’s market. It was leaked somehow, and can be found all over the place. (I first found it on Cryptome, which is the go-to place for anything security-related.) Naturally, the… → Read More
Full-body scanners are being tested in a variety of airports. I didn’t get the pleasure of using one on my recent trip to Japan, unfortunately, so I can’t provide a first-hand account of what it’s like. I suspect it’s quite unremarkable to walk through one of these. That won’t stop people from being outraged over the fact that some TSA goon sitting in a sterile room somewhere where he can’t see… → Read More
In the never-ending battle to protect our freedoms, detecting chemical agents and illegal drugs remains a top priority. Luckily, the smart people at Queen’s University in Belfast have just come up with a new way that will provide instant results, and won’t be something that can be tricked by covering scents or other materials.
Now you definitely won’t be able to bring back those (purely for fun)… → Read More
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