better, second try Re: so, what can be done to better secure air travel?

[Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org>]

On 12/30/09 3:16 AM, Gadi Evron wrote:
> Strategic:...

Let me try this email again:

Air Travel Security: Practical Industry Suggestions From Us
I am just a security guy, as are many others who will read this. Perhaps 
it is time us "simple" security guys got together and write some 
recommendations for air travel security? Get out voice out there as an 
organized professional group, which can in turn lobby for our 
professional recommendations.

Then we can edit them, vote on them, and submit them to the government 
for consideration in the upcoming brouhaha of committee discussions.

I am collecting ideas on my blog, here:

http://gadievron.blogspot.com/2009/12/air-travel-security-practical-industry.html

But feel free to comment on funsec, naturally!

Here are mine, just to get the ball rolling:

Strategic:
0. Review useless technologies which are there for beyond the security 
theater purposes (which do matter) and start eliminating bad projects. 
Your purpose in security theater was to maintain air travel and keep 
people calm, right?
1. An investment in better intelligence (no brainer)
2. Create a "always strip-search" list rather than just "no fly" list., 
so that lesser threats can be dealt with responsibly without 
compromising the usefulness of the no fly one. I am sure they already 
have one, but they should layer this rather than deal with extremes.
3. Hire better agents (education/ability... better pay). Should be a 
small increase per person, but it will cost a lot in total. Then again, 
how much do all the current b/s additions cost?
4. Yours?

Tactical:
1. Copy Israel's air security training manual for agents. Israel's 
tactics may not be able to scale to the US level, but the training can.
2. Stop panicking and alienating people, so they are calmer and you can 
more easily identify suspicious people, so that this new training is 
more effective. Heck, do it anyway. Send TSA agents to some workshop on 
being nice. Or make shifts shorter.
3. Put "human sniffer" walk-through machines in every airport, for 
international flights.
4. Buy the better brand of baggage screening && X-ray machines for 
international flights (remember the liquid issue with checking for 
explosives in the last scare?)
5. Some people suggested to start profiling and leave PC behind, but I'm 
not touching that.
6. Yours?

Some of these are very high cost. Some of these are (on scale) very low 
cost.
Some of these should replace other high-cost idiocies, such as creating 
two new mega-airports, which is sound security-wise, but will only add 
an hop to the threat to jump over, with the same silly tests in yet 
another airport, rather than add a filter. Or full-body scans which will 
be of limited help, and insult us all.

What are yours? Join the discussion!

        Gadi.
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