4 ms·

I would have thought TSA would "x-ray" (or whatever it is they do) through your bag and pull you off to the side for further investigation super quickly.

BooneJS 7y ago
Nothing quite like partially disassembled, partially glued electronics to tick the box on a security checklist.
- nickjj 7y ago
  It's surprising at how little this matters. I came back from a tech event once with a build a robot kit, except I'm a very light packer and the box was huge so I had to take everything out and fit it into a backpack along with everything else I had. I had a compartment that had an assortment of circuit boards, screws, wires, plastic pieces, etc.. No one even batted an eye and the bag went straight through the carry on x-ray machine. This was in San Jose, California while preparing for a cross country flight. I was surprised too.
  - eliasbagley 7y ago
    They aren't looking for electronics - they are looking for large masses that could be fuel for the explosives. Big blocks of clay, liquids, etc. A jumble of electronics alone with nothing that can actually explode is common and doesn't ring any alarm bells. I discovered this after talking to a TSA agent after flying a few times with my modular synthesizer, where I was surprised that it was never pulled for extra screening.
    - solstice 7y ago
      Magic the gathering decks (60-100 cards) also seem to trigger this as they also show up as dark blocks on x-ray
    - _jal 7y ago
      My mother makes soap and tends to give me a few bars when I visit. I have learned to mail it back to myself; taking a few 2"x3"x5"-ish blocks of a uniform-density material through the airport is a guaranteed close look.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - Drakar1903 7y ago
        What I'm reading is that it's possible to sneak a bomb through as long as the bomb smells like lavender.
    - wvenable 7y ago
      Yes, baby wipes will get you searched every time. They just look like dense bricks of material on the x-ray.
      - john_moscow 7y ago
        Same for a rectangular pack of biscuits.
    - benibela 7y ago
      They closely examined the cucumber in my bag
      - DoreenMichele 7y ago
        Drugs hidden in a cucumber truck: https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-fentanyl-bust-largest-ever-20190131-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-fentanyl-bust... Also, plants or foods are sometimes forbidden because of potential to carry vermin, plant diseases, etc. https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/prohibited-and-restricted-items https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/pr...
  - eqvinox 7y ago
    A friend once forgot a bare PCB TV-b-gone in a coat pocket while traveling EU to US. He noticed it right at the first checkpoint. They asked what it is, laughed at the response, and went "eh, as long as there are no wires dangling off it, we don't care." He stuffed it in a bag and had no further issues. Why the wires would've made a difference is beyond me...
    - mynegation 7y ago
      You obviously don’t watch Tv shows like 24. Wires is something you stick into the explosive.
- lb1lf 7y ago
  When in university, I took part in a CUBEsat effort. I brought the mechanical assembly -no electronics, just the aluminium structure- of our satellite to CalPoly for a CUBEsat workshop; on the way back to Europe I found out the hard way that anything which goes into space is considered munitions as far as the US DoD is concerned. Took a while longer than expected to get on my flight...
  - mike50 7y ago
    ITAR not just DOD.
- mhandley 7y ago
  A year or so back my son and his friends built a muon detector as a high school project, and then flew it from London to Germany and back to measure muon rates at altitude. Basically two metal boxes glued together, with some hand cut holes for display and power. Inside, a large block of solid plastic scintillator, wrapped in foil, with a bunch of hand-made electronics connected to it. Suspicious? Only a bit. I wrote a letter on headed university paper, explaining what it was, and with contact details in case they needed to phone. At Stansted, the kid carrying it got the third degree, eveything put though the explosives sniffer, and so forth. The security person afterwards told him it ticked all the boxes except one for a bomb. Would love to know what that one was! They did eventually allow it on the plane though, and got really good data from the flight. On the return flight, security at Cologne didn't look twice - just went straight through the x-ray machine, didn't even get pulled aside. Must have been asleep on the job.
- vb6sp6 7y ago
  The TSA did an internal audit where they sent 70 mock explosives and weapons through checkpoints. 67 made it through.
dannyw 7y ago
The TSA misses about 95% of guns, so chances are you’ll be fine.
- MuffinFlavored 7y ago
  Is this for checked bags or carry on bags? I thought we literally walk through metal detectors?
  - garblegarble 7y ago
    In carry-on bags - bags go through an x-ray machine with an operator looking at so many negatives that it's next to impossible for them to spot a positive case. Schneier has a nice piece about it in an excerpt from one of his books: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/failures_of_air.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/failures_of_a...
    - asdff 7y ago
      Makes no sense why ML isn't used, with a quick peep at a potential positive by a human before they rip your luggage open with a buck knife.
      - garblegarble 7y ago
        >Makes no sense why ML isn't used I agree, although remember that it changes the problem for the attacker too: they're switching between trying to fool a (bleary-eyed) general intelligence to simply fooling a ML algorithm... think about how obvious and jarring anti-facial-detection face camoflage is for a human, whereas the machine simply sees nothing.
- CaliforniaKarl 7y ago
  The latest report I could find says 70%: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa-misses-70-of-fake-weapons-but-thats-an-improvement/#1a719dfb2a38 https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa... Are there newer stats that show 95%?
netsharc 7y ago
He forgot step 0 of the How-To: be generically non-threatening. (White or East-Asian, no beards).

BooneJS 7y ago

Nothing quite like partially disassembled, partially glued electronics to tick the box on a security checklist.

nickjj 7y ago
It's surprising at how little this matters. I came back from a tech event once with a build a robot kit, except I'm a very light packer and the box was huge so I had to take everything out and fit it into a backpack along with everything else I had. I had a compartment that had an assortment of circuit boards, screws, wires, plastic pieces, etc.. No one even batted an eye and the bag went straight through the carry on x-ray machine. This was in San Jose, California while preparing for a cross country flight. I was surprised too.
- eliasbagley 7y ago
  They aren't looking for electronics - they are looking for large masses that could be fuel for the explosives. Big blocks of clay, liquids, etc. A jumble of electronics alone with nothing that can actually explode is common and doesn't ring any alarm bells. I discovered this after talking to a TSA agent after flying a few times with my modular synthesizer, where I was surprised that it was never pulled for extra screening.
  - solstice 7y ago
    Magic the gathering decks (60-100 cards) also seem to trigger this as they also show up as dark blocks on x-ray
  - _jal 7y ago
    My mother makes soap and tends to give me a few bars when I visit. I have learned to mail it back to myself; taking a few 2"x3"x5"-ish blocks of a uniform-density material through the airport is a guaranteed close look.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - Drakar1903 7y ago
      What I'm reading is that it's possible to sneak a bomb through as long as the bomb smells like lavender.
  - wvenable 7y ago
    Yes, baby wipes will get you searched every time. They just look like dense bricks of material on the x-ray.
    - john_moscow 7y ago
      Same for a rectangular pack of biscuits.
  - benibela 7y ago
    They closely examined the cucumber in my bag
    - DoreenMichele 7y ago
      Drugs hidden in a cucumber truck: https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-fentanyl-bust-largest-ever-20190131-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-fentanyl-bust... Also, plants or foods are sometimes forbidden because of potential to carry vermin, plant diseases, etc. https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/prohibited-and-restricted-items https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/pr...
- eqvinox 7y ago
  A friend once forgot a bare PCB TV-b-gone in a coat pocket while traveling EU to US. He noticed it right at the first checkpoint. They asked what it is, laughed at the response, and went "eh, as long as there are no wires dangling off it, we don't care." He stuffed it in a bag and had no further issues. Why the wires would've made a difference is beyond me...
  - mynegation 7y ago
    You obviously don’t watch Tv shows like 24. Wires is something you stick into the explosive.
lb1lf 7y ago
When in university, I took part in a CUBEsat effort. I brought the mechanical assembly -no electronics, just the aluminium structure- of our satellite to CalPoly for a CUBEsat workshop; on the way back to Europe I found out the hard way that anything which goes into space is considered munitions as far as the US DoD is concerned. Took a while longer than expected to get on my flight...
- mike50 7y ago
  ITAR not just DOD.
mhandley 7y ago
A year or so back my son and his friends built a muon detector as a high school project, and then flew it from London to Germany and back to measure muon rates at altitude. Basically two metal boxes glued together, with some hand cut holes for display and power. Inside, a large block of solid plastic scintillator, wrapped in foil, with a bunch of hand-made electronics connected to it. Suspicious? Only a bit. I wrote a letter on headed university paper, explaining what it was, and with contact details in case they needed to phone. At Stansted, the kid carrying it got the third degree, eveything put though the explosives sniffer, and so forth. The security person afterwards told him it ticked all the boxes except one for a bomb. Would love to know what that one was! They did eventually allow it on the plane though, and got really good data from the flight. On the return flight, security at Cologne didn't look twice - just went straight through the x-ray machine, didn't even get pulled aside. Must have been asleep on the job.
vb6sp6 7y ago
The TSA did an internal audit where they sent 70 mock explosives and weapons through checkpoints. 67 made it through.

dannyw 7y ago

The TSA misses about 95% of guns, so chances are you’ll be fine.

MuffinFlavored 7y ago
Is this for checked bags or carry on bags? I thought we literally walk through metal detectors?
- garblegarble 7y ago
  In carry-on bags - bags go through an x-ray machine with an operator looking at so many negatives that it's next to impossible for them to spot a positive case. Schneier has a nice piece about it in an excerpt from one of his books: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/failures_of_air.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/failures_of_a...
  - asdff 7y ago
    Makes no sense why ML isn't used, with a quick peep at a potential positive by a human before they rip your luggage open with a buck knife.
    - garblegarble 7y ago
      >Makes no sense why ML isn't used I agree, although remember that it changes the problem for the attacker too: they're switching between trying to fool a (bleary-eyed) general intelligence to simply fooling a ML algorithm... think about how obvious and jarring anti-facial-detection face camoflage is for a human, whereas the machine simply sees nothing.
CaliforniaKarl 7y ago
The latest report I could find says 70%: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa-misses-70-of-fake-weapons-but-thats-an-improvement/#1a719dfb2a38 https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa... Are there newer stats that show 95%?

netsharc 7y ago

He forgot step 0 of the How-To: be generically non-threatening. (White or East-Asian, no beards).