Will law enforcement gain the power to search laptops at any time by declaring them potential bombs?
US intelligence and law enforcement agencies believe that ISIS and other terrorist organizations have developed innovative ways to plant explosives in electronic devices that FBI testing shows can evade some commonly used airport security screening methods, CNN has learned. Heightening the concern is US intelligence suggesting that terrorists have obtained sophisticated airport security equipment to test how to effectively conceal explosives in laptops and other electronic devices.
The intelligence, gathered in the last several months, played a significant role in the Trump administration's decision to prohibit travelers flying out of 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa from carrying laptops and other large electronic devices aboard planes. The findings may raise questions about whether the ban is broad enough. CNN has learned that, through a series of tests conducted late last year, the FBI determined the laptop bombs would be far more difficult for airport screeners to detect than previous versions terrorist groups have produced. The FBI testing focused on specific models of screening machines that are approved by the Transportation Security Administration and are used in the US and around the world.
Also at USA Today and The Washington Examiner.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday April 03 2017, @07:10PM
I remember years ago being required to power on a laptop in order to bring it aboard.
Or course, now you could have a something like a Raspberry Pi Zero W (£9.60) built into the screen and room for several pounds of your favorite demolition tools in the body packaged in disk drive cases (to fool the Xray) and none of the high-school dropouts at the TSA counters will be any the wiser.
Just about (but not quite) all the damage such a device could cause has already been caused (allegedly) by some terrorist wannabe in some internet cafe somewhere posting "chatter". The world is inconvenienced by a rumor. The inconvenience will last years, kill laptop sales, and everybody moves to paper thin tablets.
Who wins from that scenario? Follow the Money.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.