

Explosives planted on man to test airport security - gridspy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8441891.stm

======
ghshephard
"Slovak authorities were reportedly trying to test screening procedures for
checked-in luggage by placing items with unwitting passengers."

Red-Team screening is a fairly important element of the TSA's approach to
testing network security, but you run your own people (with appropriate ID and
escalation contacts) through these security checkpoints. At the _most_ you
grab some civilian security contractors.

Something about "unwitting passengers" makes me want to ask WTF? If the
Slovakian minister for the interior had not apologized, I wouldn't have
believe the article had their facts straight.

Bizarre.

------
bd
There are some inaccuracies in BBC report. Here is what happened according to
Slovak news [1]:

Slovak police was training explosive sniffing dogs at Poprad airport. They
planted several samples of explosives in passengers' luggage (90 grams of RDX
/ Hexogen [2]).

Here versions differ - Slovak police claims they planted two, Irish media tell
they planted eight samples. One of these was missed by dogs and subsequently
police screwed up, forgot about it and let it pass to the airplane.

The explosive sample was in a baggage of Slovak citizen living and working in
Ireland.

Once the police realized their mistake, they let know the pilot (still during
the flight), and he was supposedly ok with it.

They also let know destination airport in Dublin. Again here versions differ -
Slovak police says they did it already on Saturday, when the incident
happened, Dublin airport claims they got the message only on Tuesday.

Three days after the flight, once Irish authorities got to know there is a
missing explosive (from Slovak official sources), they sent a bomb disposal
squad to poor unsuspecting passenger, cleaned two streets around him, and
arrested him.

\----

BTW This was not the first time such incident happened. Five years ago similar
thing happened at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4069785.stm>

Also, not explosives, but similarly Japanese police lost planted drugs in an
unknowing traveler’s luggage:

[http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/26/japanese-customs-
pla.ht...](http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/26/japanese-customs-pla.html)

\----

[1] [http://www.sme.sk/c/5179110/policajti-na-letisku-schovali-
vy...](http://www.sme.sk/c/5179110/policajti-na-letisku-schovali-vybusniny-do-
batozin-jedna-odletela-do-dublinu.html)

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDX>

------
jacquesm
I never travel with anything more than cabin approved luggage, no matter how
long I go away from home.

There is the odd weird look when I pass customs with nothing but a shoulder
bag for a 2 month stay (hey, they do have washing machines!) but usually not
much trouble because of that.

If you let your bags out of your sight then anything could happen to them, you
never know who could mess with your bags, some thrower or other person behind
the scenes using you as a mule.

It happens, and it happens more often than you think. This is the first time
though that a government is on the record as having done this.

What an absolutely unbelievable breach of trust. These people ought to be
fired.

~~~
ramidarigaz
I do the same, just a backpack. Have customs agents ever given you crap for
not having much luggage?

~~~
streety
I also do this whenever possible. I've been told by the person handling
checking in that I may face an enhanced screen or words to that effect but
have always breezed through without any issue.

Edit: My experience is travelling from the UK to US and Europe and back.

------
gridspy
Absolutely unbelievable. A massive abuse of trust on the part of the police
forces.

------
akronim
Shouldn't we have agents trying to get through security with guns, explosives
and anything else that's restricted, multiple times per day so we can measure
how effective airport security is and improve it? Ideally these agents would
not get on the plane, or what they are given to carry through could be
disabled in some way.

Otherwise how do we know it works at all? How do you check that the screeners
are doing their jobs properly?

~~~
potatolicious
_"Otherwise how do we know it works at all?"_

This may be cynical of me, but I suspect this is precisely why we _don't_ do
penetration testing regularly...

Funny scene a couple of days ago - I was taking the train from Canada to the
USA, pre-clearing US border security before getting on the train. The
gentleman in front of me had a pair of nail clippers in his carry-on, and was
told he needed to put them in checked luggage to get on the train.

First of all, nail clippers. Really? _sigh_

Secondly, passengers carried their checked luggage past the security
checkpoint themselves, out of sight of the security guys, and voluntarily
placed their luggage on the checked luggage cart sitting essentially
unattended. That gentleman, if he meant any harm, could have easily taken his
nail clippers and gotten on the train with it and... well, I dunno what you
would _actually_ do with nail clippers on a train that's really so bad.

~~~
gridspy
He might decide to fly the train into a building.

------
jeff18
Wow, I am surprised this guy didn't get tortured or anything. How is he
supposed to convince a foreign country that the bombs discovered in his bag
are not his?

~~~
gridspy
"Slovak authorities admitted planting them in his luggage" - First they told
the Irish police he had a bomb, then they told them that they were at fault.
It is a good thing that the innocent traveller didn't get severely injured in
the raid.

------
pmichaud
Why would slovac authorities want to test the security of Irish airport
security?

~~~
abstractbill
I believe they were testing their _own_ airport security, and it failed,
resulting in the man getting through to Ireland with the planted explosives.

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javery
Finally a good reason not to leave your luggage unattended at the airport.

------
dfranke
Stolen from another forum: "Is there not an 'Eicar' equivalent for testing
airport security?"

