$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog - Hackdot

Re:$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog by mc32 on Wednesday March 07, 2012 @01:36AM (#3674544)

I would argue making people feel safer (or comfortable) to fly is a benefit they are willing to trade in for whatever might happen. They have nothing to lose. If they don't do the "theatrics" people might choose to fly less due to a perceived lack of security effort. So, in the meantime, while the theatrics maintain a semblance of security, the airline industry gets the benefit of doubt.

Once the bubble is burst, that'd be another issue. Still, I think people will rationalize it as "well, we got X years use out of the system."

Out of curiosity, what _do_ you think has accounted for the safety record? Obviously you don't believe the theater has helped. At the same time I don't believe that people (AQ) have not been plotting against transportation assets. I would ask, why would they abandon that path, if they thought the theater was just theater? Are there other mechanisms keeping them at bay?

Additionally, even if the theater contributed nothing to security and all the heavy lifting was accomplished by other means -intel, profiling, whathaveyou, the theater would act as a signal to travelers that something was being done. It would be the customer-facing expression of the work being done behind the scenes --a kind of proxy so that what's actually being done --methods and so forth could remain opaque.

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Re:$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog by snom360 on Wednesday March 07, 2012 @05:19AM (#3674987)

I think the main reason for the safety record is that there just aren't that many terrorists out there. Of course, increased security raises the bar, so it would be more appropriate to say that there aren't that many terrorists out there with the resources and skills to pull off an attack.

But if airport security actually hindered many real attempts, why don't we hear about them?

Right up until 9/11 you could ask the same question, what accounts for the safety record? After all, many years had passed without any hijackings or bombings.

Then the bubble burst, and the only possible response was to increase security measures. Any politician not supporting such measures would have been torn apart by the media if a new attack had occured.

I think that airport security _does_ provide a deterrence to unskilled terrorists, and it provides real security against some random mentally unstable guy trying to wreak havoc.

I think everyone agrees that security theatre helps people feeling safe. It's the amount of money being spent on it that is at issue. We'd all be safer if the money spent on ineffective body scanners were being spent on making roads safer, or perhaps by building more schools and hospitals in areas of political conflict.

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