• Montana airport wants private security companies to replace TSA screeners after breach

    TSA screeners at Gallatin Field in southwest Montana failed to detect a gun in a passenger’s carry-on bag; the airport security authorities say they will explore private companies to replace TSA screeners; chair of the Gallatin Airport Authority: “If those guys can’t detect a handgun, which is pretty basic, not some exotic explosive sewn to your underpants, then we get upset”

  • U.K. firm says its scanning technology meets security, privacy concerns

    Cambridge, U.K.-based TeraView says it is developing terahertz body scanners which use light from upper end of the infra-red spectrum, with a wavelength between 0.1 and 1mm; the scanners do not produce an image but a “fingerprint” — rather than blurry pictures of naked tourists, a TeraView scanner would return absorbance data that could be automatically analyzed to approve travelers or alert airport staff to investigate further

  • African nations do not have the means for meaningful improvements in airport security

    While some of the worst lapses, such as allowing spears or other potential weapons in carry-on luggage, seem no longer to occur, other aspects of airport security in Africa remain disquieting; One expert says that if airports in developing nations had to meet Western security standards, “they would ground all the airplanes, as simple as that”

  • Preventing terrorists from infecting passengers on a plane with deadly disease

    RGF Environmental Group Inc. is in discussion with Sandia Labs over identifying potential airline bioterrorism threats, and in association with Kansas State University presents a study on the solutions

  • Declassified report details intelligence failures leading up to failed terrorist attack

    The report criticizes the U.S. counterterrorism (CT)community for not connecting the dots related to the Christmas Day plot; “Unfortunately, despite several opportunities that might have allowed the CT community to put these pieces together in this case, and despite the tireless effort and best intentions of individuals at every level of the CT community, that was not done”

  • Debate intensifies over full-body scanners

    The Christmas Day near-bombing invigorated an already-keen interest in whole-body scanners; there is debate going on over the effectiveness – and health risks – of the two main technologies available: millimeter-wave radiation and backscatter radiation; some suggest soft chemical ionization as an alternative

  • U.K, European rail boom forecast as travelers tire of airport scan queues

    Concerns have been raised in the United Kingdom that whole-body scanners could significantly increase journey times as passengers queue to go through the detectors; this could lead to frequent flyers, particularly business travelers, deciding to opt for the train for domestic and short haul European flights

  • Whole body scanner may be part of the answer, but not all of it

    Whole body scanners should provide the answer to security screening, but the human element – people get bored, distracted, and careless – will make them less than flawless; the future of screening is technology that reduces the possibility of human error to zero; there is also a need for passenger profiling that does not need to take into account the race or religion of the passenger

  • DHS seeking volunteers for flights, embassies

    DHS has circulated an internal memo to its employees seeking volunteers to train as air marshals and to serve at U.S. diplomatic posts abroad; fewer than 1 percent of the average of 28,000 daily commercial flights in the United States carryair marshals

  • Slovak explosives found in Dublin flat

    The Slovakian government wanted to test airport security in Bratislava by planting explosives in the luggage of eight unsuspecting passengers; security checks at the airport discovered the explosives in the luggage of seven of them, but the eighth passenger had the explosives in his luggage so well concealed, that he made it to Ireland undetected

  • New airport security drive spurs scanner patent surge

    The averted Christmas bombing was only the latest evidence that there is a need for better, and more sophisticated, airport security technologies; a look at the dossiers of the U.S. Patent Office shows that many companies and individuals have applied for patents for a variety of security technologies

  • 2010: Topics for homeland security discussion

    The only thing we can say for sure about 2010 is terrorists, criminals, and mother nature will surprise us at some point during 2010; still, based on what we do know, we offer a short list of topics we predict will dominate the homeland security discussion in the coming year – from whole-body scanners to 100 percent air cargo screening to social Web sites to communication interoperability to the consequences of climate change (or is there a climate change?)

  • Several travel firms refuse ID cards as passport alternative

    Major travel companies say they would not recognize the U.K. ID cards as alternative to passports for European travel by U.K. citizens; more problems for the already-mired-in-controversy scheme

  • Air travel security reviews under way after airliner attack

    The Obama administration has launched a review of two aspects of air travel security – the effectiveness of the no-fly watch list and explosive detection; critics take issue with DHS secretary Napolitano’s assertion that the air travel security system “worked”

  • El Al flights to Johannesburg may come to an end over security personnel dispute

    Israeli airline El-AL boasts the toughest security measures of any airline; the El-Al security personnel at various airports around the world carry diplomatic passports, giving them immunity from law suits; the South African government does not like this practice, but EL-AL insists that if its security people cannot carry diplomatic passports, it will cancel its flights to South Afria