The TSA itself was found to have had a failure rate of 95% two years ago during a security sting operation.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/07/tsa-fa...

As someone who flies through istanbul once a year, i was always surprised by the fact that there is very little security at us airports. :)

I think it is more about penetration possibility more so than airport sevurity itself.

Security at US airports is hit-and-miss. Sometimes they check something and sometimes they dont. Rules appear to change daily and every checkpoint seems to interpret them slightly differently.

In middle eastern countries where domestic terrorism is higher, like turkey or israel, the security checks are pretty abundant.

You get searched at the airport entrance, and get your luggage checked with xray scanners. Yoy get another one after passing the passport check done by cops. If you are flying to united states you get searched again at the gate.

On top of this, they verify your legal status at the checkin. It happened to me once when my greencard was approved but i only had the ead card. We literally spent an hour to get it sorted.

So i am not sure, but adding one more layer on top makes me feel sad.

Good thing turkish airlines will use specialized storage mechanism to store laptops in cabin. At least that will prevent things from getting stolen or potentially illegally searched.

carry a little dog in a crate or weer your insulin pump, well you are getting an extra look. security is one thing but the level of ignorance at times is astounding.

Anecdotally, a family member that regularly travels with their small dog experiences much less scrutiny.

Most times they're asked to hold the dog in it's crate and walk through the basic metal detector instead of a full-body scanner. In the 15 or so trips they have gone on in the last six months, they've never once been stopped for enhanced screening.

Or not. I've never had them check my laptop once (other than the scans) in any airport I've been through, and that's quite a few. (Not that I haven't seen it done though)

This isn't about an assessment on airport capabilities in laptop security vetting.

My personal experience has been that Dubai (which I believe is one on the list?) has some of the highest security I've seen. Everytime I go through it as a passenger connecting on another flight (not leaving the airport) I've been though security (shoes off x-rays e.t.c.) after leaving the plane and getting into the terminal proper. In addition there were spot checks in the waiting lounge before actually bording my onwards flight (on one trip, not all) where my belt was swabbed (presumably for explosives?) and I was asked to turn on my laptop to prove it worked. Never had that happen anywhere else.

The Dubai people have always been great to me. They are intrusive but they are polite. They don't make you feel like a criminal or that you have done anything wrong. Being spot-checked in Dubai isn't anything as embarrassing as being surrounded by TSA agents angry because you forgot a thumbdrive in your coat pocket. In Dubai I feel like a customer purchasing a product. At US airports I feel like a peon asking permission to borrow bossman's car.

Yes politeness goes a long way in such situations.

The one time I've had anyone take a closer look at my computer equipment was an old iBook "yo yo" power supply. But that was a weird design for a power brick and not exactly a popular brand at the time. They probably looked pretty strange on an xray.

On the other hand I don't fly often, so I'm not much of a data point.

Why do only the US and U.K. care?

They see themselves as the most likely targets for this type of attack. Whether they are or not is up for debate. They are also governments supported by very scared populations that want thier governments to be the most publicly strict. Of all nations, the US and UK most enjoy the security theatre.