Can Technology At National Airports Deter Terrorism
In UGG Womens Classic Mini 5854 Purple UK the last five years, airport security UGG Womens Classic Argyle 5879 Black UK has undergone a complete revolution as a result of the September 11th attacks. NY1 Tech Beat reporter Adam Balkin takes a look at some of those developments in the following report.
Puffers, ion scanners, biometrics. Post 9/11 airport security technologies have gotten much more sophisticated since 9/11, but how well are they actually doing five years later?
"Five years is not really a long time when you're talking about technology development and there are some really innovative things being developed right now," said Janet Libert of Executive Travel Magazine. "The question is really making it effective without wasting a lot of money and maybe not getting a good result. So what you're seeing out at airports today, depending on what airport you go to, is different kinds of technology in test mode."
"The puffer machine, which is deployed in about 36 airports throughout the country there's actually 93 machines now, but more will be deployed those are being used and tested and have gotten good reviews," Libert continues. is screened by a CT scanner, so 100 percent of bags are checked for explosives and things that might be dangerous."
Electronic, smart chip passports, billed as harder to duplicate, started distribution in the United States last month. Still, some warn we can't place too much confidence in these high tech, whiz bang devices.
"The question to ask is how many real bad guys have been caught by these mechanisms, the answer seems to be none, deterred, UGG Womens Buckle 1606 Chestnut UK perhaps more," says Steven Bellovin of Columbia University. "Any one of these things has to be looked at as a system it doesn't stand by UGG Womens Classic Mini 5845 Purple UK itself."
An example: using the passport. Yes it may be harder to fake, but who's to say a terrorist won't fake their identity to get one in the first place?
"How good are the governments UGG Womens Classic Flower 5825 Chestnut UK of Sudan's records, Afghanistan? We don't know," cautions Bellovin. "We know that this is the same person the passport was issued to, but we don't know who was bribed to issue the passport even in the United States."
That's where humans come in. Some believe screeners with a post 9/11 mentality may have been able to catch those hijackers, whereas biometrics, puffers, or high tech passports would have done little if anything.
"Most of them were in the country legally, they had proper IDs, they were just bad guys and that's not something you're going to find with your database, except maybe the two, I think, were on the CIA watch UGG Womens Buckle 1606 Sand UK list. So we have to be careful not UGG Womens Classic Cardy 5819 Grey UK to rely on technology to the exclusion of other mechanisms," says Bellovin.
Which is why more of the future seems to focus on technologies that can only really work alongside human intuition. That includes a few new systems designed to alert screeners when a passenger, no matter how subtly, may simply be acting suspiciously.