

Maker of Airport Body Scanners Suspected of Falsifying Software Tests - uptown
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/11/rapiscan-fraudulent-tests/

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ck2
I wonder how many more times the TSA will be proven worthless and pointless
before something changes. But in reality they will just get more tax money
thrown at them. 2015? 2020? 2025? By 2030 they will be their entire own
industrial complex bigger than McDonalds.

The annual incidents should be hitting the opening minutes of TV news in just
a few days with the man-on-the-street responses "Oh well, groping our
genitals, what can you do - we need to feel safe!"

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jamesmcn
The TSA does two things successfully:

* It is a large-scale jobs program

* The more intrusive security theater is, the better a CYA effect it provides. Up until the next terrorist attack is conducted by some sufficiently determined group.

Nothing will change.

~~~
ChuckMcM
At one point I was wondering it the TSA might be a sort of 'sand bag' for the
administration, if they felt they needed more altitude in their approval
ratings they could cut the thing free, which would lower the deficit and make
people's lives better. Voila, instant boost in the polls.

Ok, so that is pretty cynical. But I've had my run-ins with them and frankly
they add no value at all. I made the mistake of pointing out that they spent
all this time and energy looking for concealed explosives, but if they found
one they had no plan whatsoever except "clear the terminal." WTF couldn't they
just put a re-inforced concrete drop well with a vent to the roof next to the
check point? It would be cheaper than one of those Xray scanners and if they
actually did find something they could just chuck it into the well and
continue on as usual. Needless to say they didn't appreciate any practical
advice.

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ck2
You realize you are having the discussion with people who didn't even go to
college?

TSA only requires high school diploma or GED, there is no education or
critical thinking requirement.

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smsm42
What degree that might that be anyway? Master of Arts of Genital Touching?
Bachelor of Beeping Stick Sciences? I don't think there's any degree that adds
anything to what TSA is doing.

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67726e
Maybe some form of degree involving psychology? If your job is to find certain
types of people, understanding how and why we do what we do might be of some
help.

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smsm42
But their job is not to profile. Their job is to not let the nail clippers
pass. Profiling in not PC, and would lead their superiors in trouble with the
press. If they were allowed to profile, we won't hear any stories about five
year old girls being groped and ninety year old grandmas given strip searches
because their dentures looked suspicious. Judging from their actions, they
have very little leeway in deciding what is dangerous and what is not. They
never talk to people, never make contact with them for more than a split
second, and mostly rely purely on either technology or good old groping. You
do not need psychology degree for that.

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67726e
I'm only curious here, but how do you have so much insight into the operations
of the TSA?

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smsm42
I observed them in act many times and read multiple articles on the topic,
including inside accounts of TSA trainees, opinions of various security
professionals and other press coverage regarding TSA. Then I thought about it
and arrived at some conclusions.

I do not think I have "so much" insight - it's a regular awareness of the
world surrounding us. If you have more insight, you are most welcome to share
and provide the missing information, more information is always better.

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redspark
Doesn't surprise me.

Yesterday I set off the alarm because my sock was bunched up, but it didn't
pick up my belt-buckle (I forgot to take off my belt).

Have also gone through them with a phone in my back pocket on accident, with
no alarms.

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smoyer
Hmmm ... anyone for some passive resistence?

I think we need to start a public education campaign that encourages everyone
to bunch up their socks before entering the machine. That's a pretty powerful
statement about the quality of the scanner's results ... something everyone
should be able to understand.

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micampe
that's useless. all you are proving is that it can have false positives, which
everyone already knows and rightly doesn't care about.

you would need to prove that it has numerous false negatives, without being
arrested.

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jlgreco
If you want to change policy, there are two routes you can go I think. Proving
false negatives is one way, since it proves them worthless, but making false
positives _skyrocket_ could be another method. If they simply become an
unworkable solution people will call for change just as well.

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aresant
Let's break down the absurdity of this situation.

There is a likelihood of falsified tests despite the fact that the machines
were "tested by a third party".

Why? Because “before [a test] gets underway, we might believe the system is on
one configuration when it’s not in that configuration.”

So the "third-party" that's responsible for testing this isn't actually
auditing that the revised software is running, they're relying on the vendor's
configuration and asking them to show them the output.

What could possibly go wrong?

Especially with a deal where the first order was for $90,000,000 worth of
these machines? And, the former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff's
firm is doing "consulting work" that is vehemently written off by the vendor
as "unrelated".

Give me a !@%$!@ break, as long as our government is run by fellow humans we
can't expect them not to be as self-interested, greedy, and tribally
protective as the rest of us.

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rhizome
It's pretty much a standardization of the worst testing/QA techniques ever. I
have to imagine that RFP's have to meet this standard (if in fact this wasn't
a no-bid contract, which I think it might have been).

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mattdeboard
The name of the company that makes these is "Rapiscan"? I'm assuming that
first "a" isn't a long vowel.

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jrockway
You can make anything sound bad if you really try hard. It's rapi as in rapid,
not rapi as in rapist. Let's debate the technical merits of this device rather
than devolve to the level of one of Reddit's make-fun-of-something threads.

~~~
mattdeboard
You're not going to have much free time trying to fight this fire.

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jivatmanx
If security was the real objective, there would be expansion of bomb-sniffing
dogs, who are extremely effective at smelling any chemical they have been
trained to.

But the dog trainers aren't politically connected.

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Cieplak
I'm sure they could have thought of a better name than Rapiscan. I don't think
many people want to get rapi scanned.

