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Re: Totally OT, sorry; was (Re: Lack of Security)

  • From: Leo Bicknell
  • Date: Thu Sep 13 09:55:17 2001 
On Thu, Sep 13, 2001 at 01:55:51PM +0100, Martin Hepworth wrote:
> Also he said that you can carry legally a 7 inch knife in your luggage 
> on internal flights.

I believe any 'legal' knife can be kept in checked luggage, and
that is still the case.  The FAA used to have a rule allowing the
carry on of knives 4" and shorter, although most US prohibited
carring anything larger than 3", so that is what most airports
checked.  I understand this is quite different from Europe, in the
US many Americans carry items like swiss army knives or leathermans
on a daily basis, including on planes.

Interestingly enough several people make ceramic knives.  See
http://www.ceramic-knives.com/ for the kitchen variant, there are
companies that make more weapon like versions.  I can only assume
that one of these would not set off a magnetometer, and would be
easy to get past security.

To keep this somewhat on topic, there is a general security parallel
here that applies to planes, networks, millitary weapons and anything
else you can imagine.  Someone on the inside with nothing to lose
can essentially always get past security.  These people had spent
years training to be pilots.  Taking another couple of years to be
actual employed pilots of an air carrier would probably have been
something they were willing to do, putting them right at the
controls.  Employees behind firewalls can always copy the company
secrets to a floppy and mail them to whoever they want.

To a large extent the only deterrant to this sort of activity is
the reprocussions that occur after the fact.  Most actions cannot
be taken by one person, they must have the support of larger groups.
Everyone involved must be held responsible in the most severe way,
so that no one is willing to help in the future.

-- 
Leo Bicknell - [email protected]
Systems Engineer - Internetworking Engineer - CCIE 3440
Read TMBG List - [email protected], www.tmbg.org