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from the if-you-build-it-they-will-come...and-cut-through-it dept.
Smugglers have found an easy way to get through the vertical steel tube Mexican border wall. From https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/smugglers-are-sawing-through-new-sections-of-trumps-border-wall/2019/11/01/25bf8ce0-fa72-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html
The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier's steel-and-concrete bollards in minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques.
After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, creating an adult-size gap. Because the bollards are so tall — and are attached only to a panel at the top — their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post.
The taxpayer-funded barrier — so far coming with a $10 billion price tag — was a central theme of Trump's 2016 campaign, and he has made the project a physical symbol of his presidency, touting its construction progress in speeches, ads and tweets. Trump has increasingly boasted to crowds in recent weeks about the superlative properties of the barrier, calling it "virtually impenetrable" and likening the structure to a "Rolls-Royce" that border crossers cannot get over, under or through.
In other words, no one did any serious pen testing on the wall design, or it would have been obvious that with all that leverage, the top tie-in was easy to flex.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by vux984 on Monday November 04 2019, @10:11PM (5 children)
"so a microphone set up as a noise detector every twenty yards or so would largely solve that."
How does that solve anything? unless you have a border agents every few hundred yards or so to come running when the alarm goes off?
But if you have that, then you don't really need the wall at all. Just set up poles every 20 yards with motion sensors, cameras, and mics.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 05 2019, @02:42AM (4 children)
Border agents aren't goose stepping back and forth along a line painted in the dirt. They have vehicles. One every mile, adjusting for terrain, would be plenty fast as far as response times go.
And you don't need a lock on your front door if you have a security camera pointed at it? No one approach is ever going to be perfect and layering approaches increases effectiveness multiplicatively rather than additively.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @03:58AM (1 child)
Submitter here, TFS cut off my personal comment,
Your submitting AC guesses that the first bollard/column/tube was cut within a week of the wall construction. A careless user failed to push it back into place after going through, so it was finally spotted. C'mon guys/gals, were you born in a barn?
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday November 05 2019, @12:42PM
Well now AC, considering the horrid conditions most are running away from, it is quite possible some of them were actually born in a barn....or worse.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Tuesday November 05 2019, @07:36PM (1 child)
The lock on my door is under $100 and might need replacing once a generation. So its a no-brainer to have in place. It prevents casual walk-ins, and delays a dedicated break in attempt by a few seconds. And in that event its primary benefit is in securing evidence of a break in for insurance coverage.
If I had a security camera pointed at my door, and it was monitored 24x7, and a guard was stationed nearby, and adding the door lock was going to cost 30 BILLION dollars, that would be a very different equation. :)
And that's the border wall situation. We already need active monitoring (microphones, and cameras), we already need active patrols to respond to alerts.
The wall costs 30 BILLION dollars, will need constant maintenance and repair, and delays a prepared crosser less than 30 minutes. Less than a couple minutes if they simply want to over and come with ropes and ladders instead of cutting through.
This isn't a question of whether the wall increases effectiveness. I'll agree that it has some effectiveness. It's a question of cost vs benefit.
If you are already going to have the cameras and mics and infrared sensors, and drones, and manned patrols/response teams. Then multi-billion dollar wall doesn't buy you that much additional security relative to its cost to build AND maintain. It *might* be worth it in a few spots; although any measured reduction in traffic at those spots may simply mean the traffic is crossing somewhere else; so evaluating even that is non-trivial.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 07 2019, @10:27PM
Well, sure, if you make what you make now. If you made what the US government makes, that would be an entirely different story. Especially as for some reason what they make has little relation to what they spend.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.