It is supposed to be easier to put a bomb inside Phones and Samsung Galaxy then into any other kind of box? Is here anyone skilled in bomb making willing to explain?
Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
51–60 of 90 posts
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#52From what I remember, Firewire used to have direct hardware access to the RAM. Does the iOS lightning charger have something similar? I may be paranoid, but I could imagine the TSA offering little charging stations so you can get enough juice to turn the phone on, and from there it's a short leap to imagine that the other side of that "charger" is going to be something that sucks down as much information as they can…
Thunderbolt does, Lightning does not. Also, it pops up a notification asking if you trust the source or if you merely want to allow charging.
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#53From what I remember, Firewire used to have direct hardware access to the RAM. Does the iOS lightning charger have something similar? I may be paranoid, but I could imagine the TSA offering little charging stations so you can get enough juice to turn the phone on, and from there it's a short leap to imagine that the other side of that "charger" is going to be something that sucks down as much information as they can…
They'd only be doing this for a tiny percentage of phones that travel through checkpoints, though- and it's not clear to me what they would be looking for.
If there was a real motivation to secretly snoop on every phone that passed through a TSA checkpoint they'd come up with a better excuse that would allow them to plug in every phone- or they would more likely just be upfront about it. They haven't really tried to be sneaky about any other invasive screenings, to my knowledge.
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#54well just plug its charger and turn it on...
I hope that is going to be acceptable: my laptop is way too old for my battery to hold a charge, and I really only use it when I'm on the road. I'd hate to have to buy a new one simply to get it on the plane :(
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#55Since when has the angle of terrorist attack shifted back to blowing up planes instead of flying them into strategic targets? A laptop with a fully charged battery can cause a lot more havoc over the Atlantic ocean than one with the drained battery. Presumably you could bring in a couple of extra batteries as well, because it's going to be a long flight. If they're worried about someone building a bomb into the insid…
And why aren't they worried about the cargo baggage which also contains electronic devices that are potentially uncharged?
Because you can't swap in a live battery in mid-flight if the device is stuck in the cargo hold, of course. I'm not sure what's so terrible about this, since most people will have a charger with them anyway. If their device happens to be out of battery but they can plug in the charger and demonstrate its safe operation, there's no problem. Indeed, this doesn't strike me as anything particularly new, rather an old story being recycled as churnalism.
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#56From what I remember, Firewire used to have direct hardware access to the RAM. Does the iOS lightning charger have something similar? I may be paranoid, but I could imagine the TSA offering little charging stations so you can get enough juice to turn the phone on, and from there it's a short leap to imagine that the other side of that "charger" is going to be something that sucks down as much information as they can…
While I don't doubt for a moment that the US Government has the technology to do this, I do doubt that the TSA, which is basically the government agency equivalent of the shortbus is allowed to have access to it.
It's not particularly difficult technology to pull off. The actual TSA agents are clearly dumb as rocks, but if you give them a machine that just sucks up data and sends it off to some central repository, they'll have no problem plugging it in.
From my understanding, they already can make sort of "notes" on your file - including books you have in your luggage, that sort of thing. It's not that crazy to imagine that they'd distribute some simple juice-jacking equipment if people are very frequently wanting to plug in.
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#57Since when has the angle of terrorist attack shifted back to blowing up planes instead of flying them into strategic targets? A laptop with a fully charged battery can cause a lot more havoc over the Atlantic ocean than one with the drained battery. Presumably you could bring in a couple of extra batteries as well, because it's going to be a long flight. If they're worried about someone building a bomb into the insid…
And why aren't they worried about the cargo baggage which also contains electronic devices that are potentially uncharged? Because you can't swap in a live battery in mid-flight if the device is stuck in the cargo hold, of course. I'm not sure what's so terrible about this, since most people will have a charger with them anyway. If their device happens to be out of battery but they can plug in the charger and demonst…
The TSA released a statement about it today
http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2014/07/06/enhanced-securi...
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#58Despite appearing the New Zealand Herald, the story comes with a byline from the Daily Mail, which, for a story related to terrorism, reduces its credibility to zero. To pick an example from today: http://tompride.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/daily-mail-journali...
There's an official TSA statement http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2014/07/06/enhanced-securi...
I guess the news is, a. don't forget your chargers! b. don't forget your power adaptors! c. remember to charge! d. make sure your device doesn't break in some repairable-but-for-the-moment-powerless way!
Otherwise, that Macbook Air is going to have to go in the bin along with the bottle of water and the toothpaste sonny jim, and there's nowt you can do about it.
(Wonder how long that will last - possibly until some celeb has their over-worked iPhone taken off them, and causes a social media stink).
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#59Wouldn't this be in relation to scanning/reading data on the devices rather than explosives? Having to charge a phone or laptop would increase time taken for processing as you'll need to charge the item momentarily whilst you interface with it.. I highly doubt they open up phones/laptops to connect directly to the HDD..
Re: Uncharged phones, laptops to be banned on US-bound flights
#60Despite appearing the New Zealand Herald, the story comes with a byline from the Daily Mail, which, for a story related to terrorism, reduces its credibility to zero. To pick an example from today: http://tompride.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/daily-mail-journali...
And the Daily Mall's only source seems to be "unnamed' TSA officials. And the article lacks any real detail. Also, they threw this obvious false-hood in their article: "The Transportation Security Administration will not allow cellphones or other electronic devices on US-bound planes from now on." Can we please remove this from the frontpage of HN until we have another source? I know a bunch of people are going to ta…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28185149
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-restricts-uncharged-electronic-d...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/06/tsa-cellphones-...
http://news.sky.com/story/1296197/us-restricts-electronic-de...
http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2014/07/06/enhanced-securi...
http://www.dhs.gov/news/2014/07/02/statement-secretary-johns...