Planes still at risk from terrorists

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.reuters.co.uk/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=596029

[While this post on the surface has nothing to do with infosec, there
is a little lesson here about watching parts of your security where
you're pretty sure things are nice, tight, safe & secure. At least
this was the feeling at a secure wing of Heathrow Airport. :)  - WK]


By Michael Holden 
14 February, 2002 08:52 GMT 

LONDON (Reuters) - Passenger jets are as vulnerable to terrorism as 
they were before September 11 despite tightened security measures, 
aviation experts say. 

Claims that security has been significantly improved, particularly in 
the United States, were little more than "a lot of noise and public 
relations spin", Chris Yates, airport security editor for Jane's 
Defence Weekly, told Reuters. 

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks when suicide hijackers 
flew planes into New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in 
Washington killing more than 3,000, tougher security was introduced at 
airports worldwide. 

Searches on check-in have grown more rigorous, all sharp objects, from 
knives to tweezers, are removed from passengers, and plastic cutlery 
has replaced metal knives and forks on board planes. 

Yates's comments come after two major breaches of security at British 
airports in the last week. In the first, an operator in charge of a 
scanning machine at Manchester Airport flunked a security test by 
allowing guns, fake explosives and bomb-making equipment onto a 
passenger flight. 

On Monday, robbers stole $6.5 million in a raid on a British Airways 
van in a secure area at London's Heathrow Airport, the world's busiest 
international hub. 

"If you can drive into an airfield to steal $6.5 million, you can 
easily drive in and plant a bomb," Yates said. 

Both incidents showed the industry was still vulnerable to the "human 
factor", Tim Spicer, a mercenary turned security consultant, told 
Reuters. 

"I was pretty staggered that the Heathrow incident took place," said 
Spicer, head of Strategic Consulting International, which recently 
audited security at Sri Lankan airports. 

"The danger is keeping up security, as guarding is pretty mind-numbing 
stuff. When you don't have an incident, it's human nature for people 
to slack off." 

In December, French authorities failed to stop Richard Reid, the 
Briton suspected of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with 
explosives hidden in his shoe, from boarding an American Airlines 
plane from Paris to Miami. 

The 28-year-old was overpowered by passengers and crew but only after 
an alert flight attendant saw him apparently trying to set his shoes 
on fire. 

The Department of Transport, which is responsible for UK airport 
security, has demanded urgent answers into the security breach at 
Heathrow. All staff should be searched before entering restricted 
zones at airports, a spokeswoman told Reuters. 

"We're not complacent about aviation security. We have got some of the 
most stringent aviation security programmes in the world and these 
remain at a heightened level," she said. 

100 PERCENT SAFETY IMPOSSIBLE 

But a government source admitted to Reuters it was impossible to 
achieve 100 percent security without bringing the industry to a 
standstill. 

Last November, President George W. Bush vowed "permanent and 
aggressive steps" to bolster security in the U.S. with stronger 
cockpit doors, armed marshals on planes, better technology and the 
hiring of 28,000 federal baggage screeners within a year. 

"The U.S. is making a lot of fuss but very few orders have been made 
for any new equipment and the ultimate goal of having 100 percent 
baggage screening in place by the end of the year isn't going to 
happen," Yates said. 

"The industry has been guilty of going for high-profile security, 
bolting the front door but leaving the back door wide open. There are 
any number of U.S. airfields where the perimeter security is downright 
appalling." 

Spicer, a former British army lieutenant colonel who made headlines in 
the late 1990s as a gun for hire in Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea, 
said it was exactly this vulnerable "back-door" that terrorists would 
look to exploit. 

"It's much more likely that an attempt to put something on a plane 
will be done through the back door than someone trying to carry it 
on," he said. 

"You can have a good system but you will always have your little 
Trojan Horse. That's the worry." 



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