• Adidas offers TSA-friendly sneakers

    Adidas cashes in on airport security by offering the SLVR S-M-L Concept shoes; the shoes are TSA-friendly, with a stretchy upper and expandable sole which makes it easy to slip them off when going through a security line; the $140 per pair shoes also have fake laces on top so you do not look like you bought them on the over-60s shopping channel

  • Man boards plane with three box cutters at New York's JFK

    On Saturday 26 February 2011, a man slipped passed TSA security screeners at New York’s JFK Airport and boarded a plane with three box cutters; the box cutters were only discovered after a flight attendant saw them fall out of his bag; two TSA agents and their supervisor did not see the blades as they passed through an X-ray machine; the flight was grounded for three hours as the plane’s passengers and crew members were evacuated and searched while the plane was swept for bombs; the two agents and their supervisor “will all be disciplined and undergo remedial training”; the passenger was not charged with any crime

  • TSA and ICE to cut down on alien flight lessons

    Several months after immigration officials arrested Thiago DeJesus, an immigrant owner of a flight school in Stow, Massachusetts, and thirty-three of his Brazilian pupils for being in the United States illegally, officials have not instituted new safeguards to prevent something similar from happening again

  • TSA Puffer machines pulled from service

    The high-tech $150,000 Puffer machine was designed to blast passengers with a puff of air and then analyze the particles it shook loose searching for any sign of explosive materials; the dirt, debris, and humidity commonly found in most airports rendered the units useless and were determined to rarely work; after spending nearly $30 million to buy and maintain 94 Puffers, TSA last year retired them from service

  • New DHS budget includes more money for airport scanners

    As lawmakers are trimming the budgets of many programs and agencies in an effort to reduce the deficit, funding for airport scanners has increased; overall discretionary funding for DHS has grown 0.7 percent to $43.2 billion, and includes more funding for full-body scanners; the Obama administration’s budget request allocates $77 million for the purchase of 275 additional full-body scanners; each scanner costs $280,000 and the additional order will bring the total number of scanners deployed at U.S. airports to 1,275; the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has introduced new software that projects a non-gender specific image to ease concerns over privacy issues that sparked a backlash last year

  • Arizona legislators thwarted by TSA

    The TSA has thwarted the effort by Arizona legislators to require airports statewide to hire private firms instead of relying on the federally procured screening agents; Phoenix officials support TSA chief John Pistole’s rejection of all incoming security contracting proposals

  • Chechen warlord claims responsibility for Moscow airport bombing

    Doku Umarov, the notorious head of the Chechen extremist group Caucasus Emirate, claimed responsibility for the 24 January suicide bombing at Moscow’s airport that left thirty-six people dead and 180 injured; Umarov promised further attacks and spoke of his organization’s ability to carry out operations “whenever and wherever [they] want”; Umarov’s group is also responsible for the March 2010 bombing in the Moscow Metro and derailing a train in November 2009; Caucasus Emirate seeks to establish a Muslim nation in the Caucasus region and expel Russia

  • Revamping inbound mail security

    After an explosive printer cartridge was found last year en route to the United States in UPS and FedEx shipments, DHS and industry are now collaborating to establish “precautionary” security measures and improve the flow of parcels and packages

  • Largest Moscow airport testing of facial biometric system

    Moscow’s busy Sheremetyevo International Airport recently concluded initial tests of a new facial biometric security system; the system, BROADWAY 3D, relies on a three dimensional surface scan of an individual’s face; the system is highly automated and minimizes the need for human supervision; during its one month of testing, 3,500 people were automatically screened with 100 percent accuracy; BROADWAY 3D is manufactured by Artec Ventures; Sheremetyevo International is Moscow’s largest airport and has seen rapid increases in passenger traffic; last year more than nineteen million people traveled through the airport

  • Risk-based security approach on TSA's horizon

    Several industry organizations are proposing dividing airline passengers into three categories — trusted, regular, or risky — and treating members of each category differently at airports security checkpoints; the categorization of passengers will be done by taking data that the government and the airlines are already collecting about passengers and bring it to the checkpoint

  • Technology for monitoring wine quality to improve airport security

    A university of California Davis professor a magnetic resonance scanner — similar to machines used in medical scanning — to check the quality of wine; he then realized that the method could be used at airports to check bottles and cans for explosives without opening them; “I’m a tinkerer, I like to build stuff,” said Matthew Augustine, a chemistry professor at the school

  • TSA blog does little to allay fears of Domodedovo-like incident

    At Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport a few weeks ago, a suicide bomber walked into the arrivals hall and killed 35 people and injured 168; on its blog, TSA says that one of the measures the agency has instituted — installing behavior detection officers (BDO) at U.S. airports to spot suspicious behavior — would go a long way toward preventing a Domodedovo-like incident in the United States; skeptics beg to differ

  • Pistole takes aim at Mica

    The decision by the TSA to deny an application by Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri to privatize its checkpoint workforce signals a turnaround in TSA policy; until recently TSA said it neither endorsed nor opposed private screening; TSA would keep contractors at sixteen out of roughly 460 U.S. airports, but would refuse to employ others elsewhere unless clear advantages were made known

  • TSA halts private security screener program

    In an about face, the TSA has halted its private screening program at airports; last December the TSA declared that it was neutral on the program, however last Friday the TSA denied an airport in Missouri its request for private screeners and declared that it would reject all incoming proposals; Representative John Mica, a vocal advocate for the program, was shocked to hear of TSA’s new plan and promised to launch an investigation into the matter; currently less than twenty airports use private security screeners

  • Syracuse mayor determined to use private contractors at airport

    With more than 100 police officers working overtime at the Syracuse airport, the average cost to the city, after salary, pension costs, and Social Security taxes amounts to $63 an hour per officer; the city mayor says that high air fares from the major air carriers affiliated with Syracuse’s Hancock International Airport are mostly due to security costs — and one way to reduce these costs is to replace the officers with a private sector contractor