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Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

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

#471

Post by bzbarsky »

KirinDave wrote: post #455
bzbarsky wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cell phones are excluded from the ban, according to this article. That makes it highly unlikely that prevention of ability to text is the goal. I know very few people who text on their tablet, laptop, or camera.

Cell phones are most likely excluded because they're so obnoxiously hard to compromise compared to laptops. Cell phones, you need per-hardware exploits and the vendors patch aggressively. When was the last time your laptop's USB controllers had a firmware upgrade for security hardening?

That's a reasonable argument if the goal is being able to examine the devices. Nothing to do with texting, though. ;)

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

#472

Post by Rapehn »

dang wrote: post #459
wildmusings wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's some strong criticism, especially since you're not even considering that someone already successfully detonated a laptop bomb on a plane. From the CNN article on this new policy: > The official said the move is partly based on intelligence that they believe indicates Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is close to being able to hide explosives with little or no metal content in electronic devices in order to tar…

Would you please not repeat the same thing over and over? This is excessive.

When did you know you were a cunt?

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

#473

Post by et-al »

mbreese wrote: post #240
et-al wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference. In 2016 , the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen and they expected all 200+ passengers to connect to the wifi to try to get in-flight entertainment. Of course no one got on. So all of us were left craning our necks trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was on the CRT in the aisle. Meanwhile, Tu…

It sounds like you were on a fairly old United plane (CRTs in the aisle). While there are newer planes with seat-back screens, their newest planes eschew any sort of seat-back entertainment completely. At least on domestic flights, it's been a while since I've flown internationally. This is a deliberate decision that airlines are starting to make. If most passengers are bringing a wifi-capable device (ipad, phone, et…

The problem was the wifi was incapable of handling all the passengers trying to connect throughout the entire flight from SFO to LHR. Even if I wanted to pay them money to watch a movie, I couldn't.

So United saved costs by not retrofitting their airplanes with seatback screens and by offering shit wifi.

Of course Louis CK would say: https://youtu.be/ZFsOUbZ0Lr0

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

#474

Post by et-al »

RobinDublin wrote: post #453
enraged_camel wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Turkish Airlines is the 7th best airline in the world, and the best in Europe, according to Skytrax: http://www.airlinequality.com/news/2016-world-airline-awards...

In last 2 years Turkish Airlines had 3 serious accidents. In 2015 they have seriously damaged their plane twice during landing in Kathmandu and Istanbul. In 2017 they lost plane that they have been operating which killed all 4 crew members and at least 34 people on the ground when it crashed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.[1] Also their primary hub Istanbul Ataturk Airport (IST) was attacked in 2016, which left 45 people kil…

Dead people can't fill out surveys. ;)

I knew of the attack at Ataturk Airport and I'm fine with a layover there. I'd even change to a stopover to hang out in Istanbul again, but don't have the time this trip. If you can get over your fears and fly the two airlines, I'm sure you'll find Turkish to be a better experience than United.

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

#475

Post by kogepathic »

chatmasta wrote: post #336
kogepathic wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will surely experience a thorough screening in Israel or Frankfurt. I think Israel is special, because they use behavioural profiling on you as well. I've been through Frankfurt on an inter-EU flight, and we were put into the priority lane because things were quiet. The priority lane only had (has?) a metal detector, no body scanner. So if the body scanners were really about security, why would they have a lane…

Frankfurt and Barcelona are both in the Schengen zone. Just like you can drive from Austria to Hungary without a passport, you can fly from Germany to Spain without one. It's only on the edge of the zone that they check your passport.

> It's only on the edge of the zone that they check your passport.

I am aware. My point wasn't clear. I wasn't surprised I was not asked for my passport, however I was surprised I was able to fly from Germany to Spain without anyone verifying I was the person my boarding pass said I was.

I could have given my ticket to a friend and they would have been able to fly under my name, because at no point did anyone ask for government ID to confirm I was the same person as my boarding pass.

I value the freedom of movement Europeans have very highly, but it just goes to show how dead easy it is for someone to travel undetected (e.g. have an associate buy your ticket).

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

#476

Post by belorn »

robotresearcher wrote: post #469
belorn wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you pull that 90% effectiveness from? People don't believe 90% in a fake pill, and by eating two get to 99% belief. Either you believe the fake pill will work or you don't. The number of pills don't multiply the placebo effect. Why believe that security theater, ie fake security, increase the physiological effect in multiplicate way based on the number of identical copies? If the placebo effect could be mul…

X-ray machine screenings are not placebo. They aren't perfect, but if you put a handgun in your carry on, there's a pretty good chance they'll find it. And yes I know there are failures. But it's not reasonable to say that the current security check is placebo only. Ask yourself: would you put a gun or knife in your carry on to prove the point? The 90% figure I made up as an example. I don't know the real figure. But…

Even yourself called it security theater because people have looked at TSA security and never found a single case where it prevented a threat to a airplane.

To quote: "Security theater is the practice of investing in countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually achieve it"

Security theater do not cause 90% prevention. And to be clear, I know several personal cases where a knife has gone through the security check because the person carrying it had forgotten that it was even there. Its not effective, no research say its effective, and all benefits that security checks provide against threat to airplanes are the placebo effect.

Strong doors, investigators, and bomb sniffing dogs. Those are some real security measures found to be effective on airports, airplanes, as well as other places where dangerous people need to be stopped. They are used by both police and the military, and shown to be cost effective. The methods used by airport screening is used by airports, not by the police or the military, and the results are clear.

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

#477

Post by emj »

samirillian wrote: post #396
hysan wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closer and closer? How about it's already happened. I just visited some of my friends in Japan, many of whom wanted to visit me in the US once their children got a bit older, and they all said they are straight up frightened of simply trying to enter the US. These are some of the most upstanding people you can meet with jobs like being teachers, government employees, etc. They are the last people who should be afraid…

Here's the thing about leaving Japan: it's always way more dangerous than staying in Japan. US homicide rate is like 10x higher. I'd bet your "upstanding" friends have layers of reservations about visiting.

Crime rate in the US is not an issue, but when talking about travelling in to the US advice like leaving your phone at home etc is quite common. That does influence some people, not to a big degree yet, but it's not getting better atm is it?

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

#478

Post by emj »

emanreus wrote: post #413
mgbmtl wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone from Canada, that guy was being a total dick, very aggressive, mansplaining the agent, which isn't surprising that it would trigger the customs agent. He would have had the same response from an agent at the border in Canada. Ex: "what shops are you planning to go to". It's fine to answer "I don't know yet". They're just testing behaviour. If you start being defensive or aggressive, pretend to know their j…

It's a bit sad that such behavior is normalized to the point that such a trivial thing is escalated to someone being locked up. Maybe it's some kind of strange taste for masochism that I don't understand. I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, I really don't understand why is such a hostile, aggressive and demeaning behavior accepted as a norm. Contrast that to this (6min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV-wgZ…

When I cross borders I'm almost always very tired, very stressed, I feel dirty and nauseous. These are things that make handling other people difficult for me.

Of course there is going to be someone who reacts badly, but you would think that they have professionals at the border that know this, from what I've seen when disembarking in London there are people who know how to handle these things. I've seen the same situation being descalated in 10 seconds.

I'm guessing there is little pay and pride to be had for a border guard in the US, so little incentive for being anything else than a git.

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

#479

Post by dTal »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #279
matheweis wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure you can buy them here (have never tried, though...) https://www.usbkill.com My favorite is the USB-C one, because the USB-C spec supports 100W...

Thanks! After huge demand, the USB Kill V3.0 comes in an anonymous version. No branding - No logos - Generic Case. The anonymous version is perfect for penetration testers that require discretion. There's no way this thing would be used in a pentest. It destroys computers. Generally pentesters try not to destroy the client's property. Amusing way to frame it, though.

"penetration testing" is usually a euphemism for "blackhat". "penetration testers that require discretion", doubly so.

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

#480

Post by jbmorgado »

mgbmtl wrote: post #366
emanreus wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to admit some border crossing incidents[1] are what I would imagine entering North Korea would be like, not the US. [1][10min audio] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDYMw1p8s9M

As someone from Canada, that guy was being a total dick, very aggressive, mansplaining the agent, which isn't surprising that it would trigger the customs agent. He would have had the same response from an agent at the border in Canada. Ex: "what shops are you planning to go to". It's fine to answer "I don't know yet". They're just testing behaviour. If you start being defensive or aggressive, pretend to know their j…

Exactly how is the guy "mansplaining"? Seems like the term is now being used to every interaction between a men and a women if the men just doesn't accept absolutely everything the women tells him to do - no matter how idiotic - without arguing in is own favour.
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