Posted on 02/12/2014 12:07:39 PM PST by Olog-hai
Security researchers have discovered a potentially dangerous flaw in airport x-ray machines that would allow hackers to pass deadly weapons through security.
Billy Rios and Terry McCorkle of security firm Qualys discovered that a training function called Threat Image Projection, which superimposes fake images of contraband on the screen to train security personnel, could be manipulated to work in reverse, and project images of weapon-free luggage over top of the real thing.
The training software is present in all TSA scanners, and also on machines deployed in government buildings, embassies, courthouses, ports and border crossings. …
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Those places need to issue guns to people too lazy to carry them, rather than confiscate guns from people who do.
I hate to sound like a broken record (or a CD for you kiddies who don’t remember them – or the God-given freedoms all those folks died to try to preserve for you) but here I go again!
The TSA began hijacking our freedoms the day they started the “security” crap at the airports many years ago. Some of us bi**hed about it then but didn’t get much response. Fedzilla was conditioning us to accept more and more restrictions on our freedoms from day one. Looks like it's working, doesn't it?
But, of course, say you, didn’t their system of NOT PROFILING do a splendid job by keeping those 19 muzzies off planes on 9-11? Goodness, if they hadn’t been stopped, they might have killed over 3,000 people, knocked down buildings and...
Oh, never mind.
(In the post 9-11 world, anyone stupid enough to try to take over a commercial flight would be beaten to death by the passengers who realize that’s to be preferred to hitting the Capitol at 600 MPH.)
It begs a question of anyone who has a real-world grip on how governments — ALL governments — operate:
“Did anyone really think the situation would get better for the traveling public?”
Having said that, this airport “training” of the public is essential to the success of Obozo’s planned National Defense Corps (or is that “corpse?”) street patrols. Can you say “You VILL show me your papers” in ebonics?
“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” (William Pitt, 1759 1806)
FOLLOW UP POST: TRIP TO NEW ENGLAND
In mid-2002, my wife and I flew to a family wedding in New England and changed planes in Philly.
With a 1 hour layover, we went to get a bite to eat at a joint in the then "sterile concourse." Our departing flight was in the same concourse.
Imagine my surprise when the meal came with one of those sturdy, white plastic knives with a serrated edge I pocketed and took on the departing flight. I later literally butchered a salami to prove that the knife was, in fact, a potentially lethal weapon.
Cutting (pun intended) to the chase, after 9-11, the next gang of morons who attempt to charge the flight deck of a commercial aircraft would be beaten to death by passengers who understand that if the flight was taken over, they would be dead anyway. They'd have nothing to lose.
If the TSA wants to keep planes from coming down, they should devote their efforts to PROFILING (just as the Israelis do) and inspecting the AIR CARGO in the belly of the plane, only 5% or so is inspected now. That's probably how it'll happen next time.
PS: For those really interested in the truth about how this Keystone Cops TSA operation FAILS TO PROTECT US, check out “Please Remove Your Shoes” available on NETFLIX and elsewhere. This troubling documentary examines the Transportation Security Administration's role as protector of the American skies, raising questions about the disturbing gap between the federal agency's avowed purpose and actual airport safety since 9/11.
Oh, a software hack.
I had hoped this article would be about a new, novel application of metamaterials which make the guns invisible to the radiation wavelengths they are subjected to. Maybe next year.
I know these systems intimately. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned with airport security. Hacking the xray machines is in about 459th on the list of things to be concerned about.
I actually worked on just such a system for E.G. & G. Astrophysics once, a long time ago.
The reality isn’t much different. Raise a ruckus on a plane these days and you will get a beating.
In tests Screeners miss anywhere from 50-75% of weapons in screened baggage.
Why go to the effort to hack the system?
Everyone else gets an interesting tale to tell their grand-kids.
That changed the next day, as did our whole world.
All this, just to avoid profiling.
Now that they are on the network instead of stand alone units it should be easier to hack. But you are correct. Not the biggest threat. The timing would be almost impossible.
That is what the T.I.P.s program is supposed to prevent. If a screener misses a set number of fake targets they lose they’re qualification to screen using the xray. Most are incredibly good at it. If the policy is followed you get pissed off TSA losers away from that duty and angrily groping travelers instead.
That might explain my TSA encounters, the competent people watch the XRay machine, the idiots deal with the passengers.
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