Airport “Security”
Posted: Thu 18 June, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Security, Stupidity, Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »I’ve always been fascinated by the entire “security theatre” thing since 11/9 (Sorry, 9/11) and this article goes some way to showing some of why I find it so interesting.
What’s security theatre? It’s the farcical measures that’ve been thrown up – particularly in airports – since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They’re not about security, they’re about making people think they’re secure – and it’s all pretty farcical when you think about it.
Bruce Schneier has been a critic of airport security and the security hype for a long time now – he’s a security and cryptography expert, who’s written some very cool stuff over the years, and knows what he’s talking/writing about. He’s quoted throughout the article, and makes far more sense than anything that the TSA and associated agencies can come up with.
All told, it’s a well-written piece, and well worth reading.
That would be an interesting experiment to repeat over here, because there are definite differences between US and UK security protocols, because the majority of their travel is inland whereas the majority of ours is international.
But security theatre, yes, definitely. I’ve long said that airport employees present a much greater security risk than passengers, as this article hints, near its conclusion. If you thinnk about LHR, for example, the majority of the low-paid airport workers are from the ethnic groups most quoted as potential terrorists.