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Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

bloomberg.com

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Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#141

Post by swatkat »

jacquesm wrote: post #95
jpalomaki wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These parts of the article provides plausible explanation: "Brian Jenkins, an aviation-security expert at the Rand Corp., said the nature of the security measure suggested that it was driven by intelligence of a possible attack." "The ban would begin just before Wednesday's meeting of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Washington. A number of top Arab officials were expected to attend the State…

What kind of attack would this policy avert?

May be there's a loophole in x-ray machines that scan cabin bags, but not in the machines that scan checked-in bags?

(just guessing, if at all "it was driven by intelligence of a possible attack")

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#142

Post by jamoes »

ryukafalz wrote: post #130
notliketherest wrote: post #119

likely Homeland Security wants to be able to search the contents of the laptops - easier to do this when they're checked.

On the plus side, it's harder to compel you to decrypt your disk if you're nowhere near it at the time.

On the minus side, they can install malware on your machine without your knowledge (even if your disk is encrypted).

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#143

Post by Gargoyle »

Can anyone think of an attack this would prevent? Anything a pad (or even a laptop) could do could be done by a phone, at least hackingwise or whatever. So something with the physical aspect. A jammer of some sort? A way to intentionally explode batteries in a harmful way?

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#144

Post by kobeya »

wapz wrote: post #139
ocschwar wrote: post #131

What utter bullshit. If they allow phones at all, then the threat cannot be an issue of a passenger sending a command out of one of these. The threat has to be the device itself. Now, a standard issue iPad is no threat, so we're talking about a customized device made to look like on. Except, if terrorists are going to the trouble to do this, they can just as easily put whatever bad thing they want to put into the cas…

I agree with you completely. Banning the devices is really not going to do anything but piss off customers (maybe make a few feel safer).

It's going to put laptops in the baggage where they can be pulled out and their data dumped for dragnet surveillance.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#145

Post by dv_dt »

ocschwar wrote: post #131

What utter bullshit. If they allow phones at all, then the threat cannot be an issue of a passenger sending a command out of one of these. The threat has to be the device itself. Now, a standard issue iPad is no threat, so we're talking about a customized device made to look like on. Except, if terrorists are going to the trouble to do this, they can just as easily put whatever bad thing they want to put into the cas…

I suspect it's more about expanding the envelope of nation specific bans - the devices being a convenient pretense.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#146

Post by waqf »

jpatokal wrote: post #134

The Big 4 Middle East/Gulf airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Turkish) have been giving legacy US carriers a lot of grief lately, since they're both cheaper and better on essentially all counts, so I can't help but wonder if they have their finger in the pie here. Few businessmen will opt to fly long-haul if they can't use their laptops, and they're specifically targeting 9 airlines here, not just airports or countri…

[duplicate comment, admins merged two stories]

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#147

Post by colordrops »

ocschwar wrote: post #131

What utter bullshit. If they allow phones at all, then the threat cannot be an issue of a passenger sending a command out of one of these. The threat has to be the device itself. Now, a standard issue iPad is no threat, so we're talking about a customized device made to look like on. Except, if terrorists are going to the trouble to do this, they can just as easily put whatever bad thing they want to put into the cas…

Or just their ass. People can fit amazingly large things in their ass and it would bypass all airport detection. There is no real security with such big loopholes.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#148

Post by hoodoof »

I've seen it quite a few times.

Someone answers their cell phone mid-flight - BOOM! Down goes the plane, steep descent, passengers screaming, masks drop from the ceiling, until that phone call ends and the plane straightens up.

Blanket ban on electronics is the only way to stop this happening.

One time I was flying and someone had forgotten to turn off their phone until the plane was in the air and it interfered with the navigation systems and we landed in London instead of Paris. Very ocnfuisng.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#149

Post by tempestn »

I have no evidence to support this, but one possibility is that they'd like the opportunity to study those devices without the owners' awareness. It sounds a little tinfoil hat, but in the absence of a better explanation (aside from really poor security theater) it starts to look plausible.
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