How does technology contribute to homeland security, and how does it make us more vulnerable? ...

How does Technology Contribute to Homeland Security, and How Does it Make Us More Vulnerable?

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A few months after September 11, 2001, a writer for Atlantic was waiting for a flight at Seattle’s airport. As he checked in, “someone ran through the metal detector and disappeared onto the little subway that runs among the terminals.”

Authorities emptied all the terminals and rescreened everyone, including people who had already boarded the airplane.

Something similar happened on Sunday, January 3, 2010 at the Newark airport. A man went the wrong way through the exit door, triggering delays, evacuations, rescreening and “seven hours of chaos… on one of the busiest days of the year.”

Airport security – as this example and Northwest 253 illustrate – is an example of a homeland security technology that, when it fails, fails badly.

Bruce Schneier, a security technologist, suggests all security technology should be subject to two basic questions: “What problem does it solve? What problems does it cause, especially when it fails?”