Security

Conman Gets 10 Years For Fake Bomb Detectors

Iraqi security checkpoint © Dan Pupek A man who financed a decadent lifestyle by selling fake bomb detectors used in war zones has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his disgusting swindle. James McCormick sold a tricked-out golf ball finder that costs less than twenty bucks to UN security forces, police in Iraq [...]

Police Greet Qantas Flight After Aussie Politician Refuses to Turn Off Phone

© Leo Reynolds You know the drill. Invariably on a flight there is someone who does not heed the announcements about turning off devices during takeoff and needs to be asked individually by the cabin crew to stop using their phone. If the passenger does not cooperate, often law enforcement is involved. Such was the [...]

TSA Screener Mistakes Pepper Spray for Laser Pointer, Sends Coworkers to Hospital

Airport security checkpoint © Inha Leex Hale There are times when you do something on the job that you might never, ever live down — like the time I nearly set the office on fire with the toaster oven, or when I accidentally wore mismatched shoes. So I have a tiny bit of sympathy for [...]

TSA Lines Its Pockets with Your Loose Change

Pocket change © Wade Brooks Over half a million bucks was left behind at security checkpoints in U.S. airports in 2012. That’s not pocket change. Well, um, actually it is pocket change, but on a massive scale. The windwall was not left in a sleek aluminum briefcase filled with neat stacks of crisp hundred dollar [...]

The Truth About Phones on Airplanes … Is Exactly What We’ve Known All Along [Video]

From DNewsChannel, Anthony Carboni reveals why there’s no reason you should have to turn off and stow your electronics during takeoff and landing. It’s all just a social ploy by the FAA, maaaaaan!

Stem Innovation’s Izon 2.0 WiFi Video Camera: Portable, Creepy-Good Security

Nobody likes Big Brother, but that specter of constant surveillance isn’t so terrifying because it represents a perversion of human nature. Few things are more natural – or understandable – than the desire to see from a distance. If we can’t be everywhere at once we can at least keep watch on a few areas, [...]

Ex-TSA Agent: We Steal from Travelers All the Time

From the “Things We Already Knew” Department … A TSA agent convicted of stealing more than $800,000 worth of goods from travelers said this type of theft is “commonplace” among airport security. Almost 400 TSA officers have been fired for stealing from passengers since 2003. Pythias Brown, a former Transportation Security Administration officer at Newark [...]

Travel Smarter: 5 Ways to Stay Safe in a Dangerous Place

Seasoned traveler, Robert Evans, reveals five tips for staying safe in even the dodgiest of places.

US Airports Introduce Relaxed Security Screenings for Those 75 and Older

Don’t forget your sciatica pillow! ©EZTD Just in time for the heavy holiday traffic over Memorial Day weekend, the TSA rolled out new policies for travelers 75 and older. Age-appropriate seniors will no longer have to take off their shoes, belts and jackets while going through security. JFK, La Guardia and Newark started less strict [...]

Offended by TSA Screenings? New Smartphone App Allows Travelers to Send Complaints

Oh yes, there’s an app for that ©digitpedia For travelers concerned with profiling on their way through airport security, a new smartphone app allows travelers to lodge complaints within minutes of the incident. FlyRights is a free app for iPhone and Android. Users can specify if they’ve been profiled on the basis of race, religion, [...]

Restrained JetBlue Pilot Causes Flight Diversion

Flying the not so friendly skies ©reuters.com Usually a disruptive flight can be traced to a passenger, but this was not the case on JetBlue flight 191. The flight was en route to Las Vegas from New York when a disruption on board caused the flight to be diverted to Amarillo, Texas. Passengers who were [...]

Meet Izzy, the Canine Customs Agent

Izzy’s nose, knows ©Yahoo.com If you’ve ever forgotten an exotic piece of fruit in your baggage en route to Kennedy Airport, Izzy the beagle might have sniffed it out before your bag left the airport. The 6 year old beagle works for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Her daily task is to stroll the [...]

NYC Hotel Maids Armed With ‘Panic Buttons’

Hotel room © The Doyle Collection In a move that brings new meaning to the “housekeeping” knock on the door, New York hotel maids are now being aided with security devices. While the security measure hasn’t been linked to French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accused incident with a hotel maid last May, the panic-button devices are [...]

British Teens Barred From U.S. Entry Due to Twitter Feed

Just a casual reminder to protect your Tweets © Twitter.com Before making their way to Los Angeles, British teens Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting littered their Twitter accounts with comments such as “free this week for a quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?”. Much of the teens’ other Twitter posts were taken out [...]

P^cubed ‘Pick-Pocket Proof’ Pants: For the Security-Conscious Adventure Traveler

Spend any time traveling and you’ll quickly learn that pickpocketing is a very real threat in many parts of the world (Colombia is even alleged to have a formal school for those looking to hone their craft). Clothing Arts is looking to put a dent in that business with the release of their P^cubed Pick-Pocket [...]

If You Can Hide Things In Your Hair, the TSA Will Be Going in There

Via Jaunted: Does it make us bad people that we sort of don’t care about this? A passenger broke down because TSA agents poked into her large hair. We don’t think it’s a case of racial profiling—even the ostensible victim seems to be complaining about the intrusive patdown itself, not its motivation—and after that we [...]

Creepy Airport Facial Recognition Automatically Detects Lying

How creepy this story gets depends on how long you keep reading. Facial recognition software is already pretty much here to stay. Scientists and engineers have made such huge strides that computers can scan your face and call up your Facebook profile. That means they’ve created not only the hardware to “look” at your face [...]

TSA Can’t Explain Why “Enhanced Patdowns” Are Legal

BoingBoing points us to this interesting post where Steven Frischling can’t seem to get the TSA to explain how/why the new “enhanced patdowns” are legal: In May 2011 I began requesting that the TSA provide legal statues, laws or rulings that definitively laid out the agency’s legal standing to perform ‘enhanced pat downs.’ After nearly [...]

TSA Rolling Out ‘Gingerbread Man’ Scanners at Select Airports

TSA has finally begun deploying the Gingerbread Man scanners that we started telling you about last February. The scanners detect suspicious objects and project them onto androgynous, human-shaped cutouts, the upshot being that they’re as effective as current full-body scanners but without all the “having people see you naked” discomfort. More via Jaunted.

TSA Launches Israel-Style Profiling Program

TSA has very slowly been moving toward Israeli-style behavior profiling since at least March. … the agency has finally launched a one billion dollar pilot program at BOS under the too-cute name “Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques”—SPOT—with the intention perhaps of eventually deploying it elsewhere. It seems to be modeled very closely on how the [...]

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