Using Risk-Based Security to Quantify the Number of Firearms Missed at Airport Security Checkpoints

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-196
Author(s):  
Sheldon H. Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Air Transportation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Airport Security ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Background Checks ◽  
Transportation Security ◽  
Transportation Security Administration ◽  
System Risk ◽  
Security Checkpoints

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for protecting the nation's air transportation system. Risk-based security is a paradigm for aligning security resources (i.e., personnel, technology, and time) with security risks. PreCheck is one approach that the TSA uses to implement this strategy. Given that passengers enrolled in PreCheck undergo background checks and fingerprinting, they experience expedited screening at airport security checkpoints, with standard screening lanes dedicated to passengers not enrolled in PreCheck. This difference can favorably impact the TSA’s ability to detect threat items like firearms. This paper uses publicly available data on firearm detection, number of passengers screened, and the fraction of passenger screenings in PreCheck lanes to estimate the number of firearms missed at airport security checkpoints in the United States. To achieve this, it defines risky firearms as firearms carried by passengers not enrolled in PreCheck and assumes that only standard screening lanes are where such firearms are brought to checkpoints. Under this assumption, the number of risky firearms missed in the recent past is estimated, given more current risky firearm detection rates. This analysis suggests that increasing the number of PreCheck passenger screenings may reduce the number of undetected risky firearms passing through security checkpoints.

Big Data Biopolitics

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Gary Kafer
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Information Management System ◽  
Airport Security ◽  
Transportation Security ◽  
Transportation Security Administration ◽  
Airline Passengers ◽  
Name Matching

Abstract This article considers the medial logics of American terrorist watchlist screening in order to study the ways in which digital inequities result from specific computational parameters. Central in its analysis is Secure Flight, an automated prescreening program run by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that identifies lowand high-risk airline passengers through name-matching algorithms. Considering Secure Flight through the framework of biopolitics, this article examines how passenger information is aggregated, assessed and scored in order to construct racialised assemblages of passengers that reify discourses of American exceptionalism. Racialisation here is neither a consequence of big data nor a motivating force behind the production of risk-assessment programs. Both positions would maintain that discrimination is simply an effect of an information management system that considers privacy as its ultimate goal, which is easily mitigated with more accurate algorithms. Not simply emerging as an effect of discriminatory practices at airport security, racialisation formats the specific techniques embedded in terrorist watchlist matching, in particular the strategies used to transliterate names across different script systems. I argue thus that the biopolitical production of racialised assemblages forms the ground zero of Secure Flight’s computational parameters, as well as its claims to accuracy. This article concludes by proposing a move away from the call to solve digital inequities with more precise algorithms in order to carefully interrogate the forms of power complicit in the production and use of big data analytics.

Packers, dilators and the options for either male or female: Navigating movement of transgender and gender non-conforming bodies, appearances and luggage through airport security

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-246
Author(s):  
Kelly L. Reddy-Best ◽  
Eric D. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Airport Security ◽  
Qualitative Research Method ◽  
Transportation Security ◽  
Transportation Security Administration ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract In this article, we investigate the experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals leading up to and moving through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport lines. We used a qualitative research method and analysed fourteen in-depth interviews of TGNC individuals. Based upon analysis of the data, three larger themes emerged, each with several subthemes. First, the TGNC participants engaged in extra packing or had additional packing considerations. Second, as participants moved through security, they frequently experienced gender confusion from the TSA agents. Lastly, participants actively thought about passing, or tried to dress in a way where they were perceived as passing as a binary gender. TGNC bodies are rendered as potential threats in binary spaces, specifically those spaces with the purpose of surveillance. In the case of TSA, they disrupt hegemonic expectations surrounding gender and require additional emotional, physical and financial labour. Despite proactivity from other parties to gain them equal access to binary spaces, TGNC individuals still experience, in some cases, additional scrutiny, observation and intensified analysis before being granted access through entryways deemed suitable only to the long-standing hierarchy of the gender binary.

scholarly journals ‘Mic Check. Can You Hear Me?’ Suheir Hammad and the Politics of Spoken Word Poetry

1970 ◽  
pp. 8-14
Author(s):  
Theri Alyce Pickens
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Racial Profiling ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Spoken Word Poetry ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Transportation Security ◽  
Transportation Security Administration ◽  
Historical Relationship

“Mic check? One-two. One-two. Can you hear me?” asks spoken-word artist and poet Suheir Hammad onstage (Lathan, 2007). Make no mistake about this question; it is not part of the sound check, nor is it part of a rehearsal. This is her poem. The audience can obviously hear her, but the question is not as straightforward as it appears. Here, Hammad blends the art of emcee-ing (one of the four main elements of hip-hop culture), with the typical language of a sound check and her experience of being racially profiled in, presumably, an American airport. In this vein, “mic” is not only short for microphone, but also the name of the United States’ Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer, named “Mike”, who searches her bags. The question, “Can you hear me?”, is directed not only at the audience, but also at “Mike”. Hammad’s double speak continues throughout the poem, “Mic Check”, where she mobilizes the language of hip-hop to promulgate a stringent critique of the links between the United States’ historical relationship to imperialism and racial profiling targeted toward Arabs and those who supposedly appear Arab.

scholarly journals The Rising Prevalence of Weapons in Unsafe Arming Configurations Discovered in American Airports: the Increasing Practice of Storage and Carry of Firearms with a Round Chambered

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry Towers ◽  
Bechir Amoundi ◽  
Richard Cordova ◽  
Karen Funderburk ◽  
Cesar Montalvo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Airport Security ◽  
Firearm Injury ◽  
Binomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Transportation Security Administration ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Accidental Discharge ◽  
Security Checkpoints ◽  
And Storage

AbstractBackgroundRecent studies have shown that Americans appear to be increasingly owning and carrying firearms for personal protection, and are increasingly storing their firearms loaded. However, the prevalence of firearm carry and/or storage with a round chambered has not hitherto been studied; in this arming configuration the weapon is loaded, with a bullet resting against the firing pin, ready to fire if the trigger is pulled. Ostensibly this decreases reaction time in a threat situation, but carries an increased risk of accidental discharge. It is unknown what fraction of firearm owners typically carry or store their firearms in this configuration, and if there have been significant temporal trends in the practice.ObjectiveWe examine firearms detected at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security checkpoints between 2012 to 2017, to examine geospatial and temporal trends in the prevalence of unsafe arming configuration in detected firearms.ResultsThe fraction of detected firearms found to be loaded has risen significantly since 2012 (Beta Binomial logistic regressionp= 0.011). States with firearm child access prevention laws have significantly fewer firearms found by the TSA to be loaded (p= 0.039).The fraction of loaded firearms found by the TSA to also have a round chambered has also risen significantly since 2012 (Beta Binomial logistic regressionp< 0.001). By 2017, 36% of firearms found loaded were also found to have a round chambered, representing an apparent concerning trend in unsafe arming configurations during carry and storage.ConclusionsAmericans appear to be increasingly using and storing firearms in unsafe arming configurations. TSA firearm detection data can potentially provide a key source of data when researching trends in firearm injury.

Security Theatre

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-174
Author(s):  
Rob Kitchin
Keyword(s):  
Data Driven ◽  
Airport Security ◽  
Critical Data ◽  
Transportation Security ◽  
Transportation Security Administration ◽  
The People ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Security Check

This chapter investigates the Kafkaesque procedures involved in data-driven airport security. It considers the experience of a passenger who keeps being selected for a special security check. While waiting in line for the security check, he has a conversation with another passenger who had been suffering the same drama for four years. The passenger recounts how he has been trying to find a way to get off the list, but the Transportation Security Administration officers do not seem to know why a passenger is on it. Moreover, there is no process to get off it. A man told the passenger once that not even the people that programmed the system know why a person is selected; they do not know what the critical data points are because the system self-learns.

Patients' Perceptions of Different Information Exchange Mechanisms: An Exploratory Study in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (04/05) ◽  
pp. 162-178
Author(s):  
Pouyan Esmaeilzadeh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
Exchange Mechanism ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Direct Exchange

Abstract Background Patients may seek health care services from various providers during treatment. These providers could serve in a network (affiliated) or practice separately (unaffiliated). Thus, using secure and reliable health information exchange (HIE) mechanisms would be critical to transfer sensitive personal health information (PHI) across distances. Studying patients' perceptions and opinions about exchange mechanisms could help health care providers build more complete HIEs' databases and develop robust privacy policies, consent processes, and patient education programs. Objectives Due to the exploratory nature of this study, we aim to shed more light on public perspectives (benefits, concerns, and risks) associated with the four data exchange practices in the health care sector. Methods In this study, we compared public perceptions and expectations regarding four common types of exchange mechanisms used in the United States (i.e., traditional, direct, query-based, patient-mediated exchange mechanisms). Traditional is an exchange through fax, paper mailing, or phone calls, direct is a provider-to-provider exchange, query-based is sharing patient data with a central repository, and patient-mediated is an exchange mechanism in which patients can access data and monitor sharing. Data were collected from 1,624 subjects using an online survey to examine the benefits, risks, and concerns associated with the four exchange mechanisms from patients' perspectives. Results Findings indicate that several concerns and risks such as privacy concerns, security risks, trust issues, and psychological risks are raised. Besides, multiple benefits such as access to complete information, communication improvement, timely and convenient information sharing, cost-saving, and medical error reduction are highlighted by respondents. Through consideration of all risks and benefits associated with the four exchange mechanisms, the direct HIE mechanism was selected by respondents as the most preferred mechanism of information exchange among providers. More than half of the respondents (56.18%) stated that overall they favored direct exchange over the other mechanisms. 42.70% of respondents expected to be more likely to share their PHI with health care providers who implemented and utilized a direct exchange mechanism. 43.26% of respondents believed that they would support health care providers to leverage a direct HIE mechanism for sharing their PHI with other providers. The results exhibit that individuals expect greater benefits and fewer adverse effects from direct HIE among health care providers. Overall, the general public sentiment is more in favor of direct data transfer. Our results highlight that greater public trust in exchange mechanisms is required, and information privacy and security risks must be addressed before the widespread implementation of such mechanisms. Conclusion This exploratory study's findings could be interesting for health care providers and HIE policymakers to analyze how consumers perceive the current exchange mechanisms, what concerns should be addressed, and how the exchange mechanisms could be modified to meet consumers' needs.

scholarly journals THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE USA LEGISLATION ON THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM AFTER 11 SEPTEMBER 2001

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Андрей Ефремов ◽  
Andrey Efremov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Maritime Transportation ◽  
International Terrorism ◽  
Patriot Act ◽  
Transportation Security ◽  
Mandatory Requirement ◽  
The Usa

The article is devoted to development of the USA legislation on the fight against terrorism. The author considered the objectives and tasks of the state in a particular historical period; analyzed the laws passed by the USA Congress aimed at combating home and international terrorism; identifies the main directions of the state policy of the USA in the field of counter-terrorism. The article covers the events after 11 September 2001 to the present. The author gives a brief overview of the events of 11 September 2001, discusses the Patriot Act and other laws, aimed at combating terrorism. The Patriot Act allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation to intercept telephone, verbally and electronic communications relating to terrorism, computer and mail fraud; introduces special measures to combat money-laundering; expands immigration rules, in particular, mandatory requirement of detention of persons suspected of terrorism appeared; reveals the procedure of multilateral cooperation to combat terrorism, strengthening measures to investigate terrorist crimes; established rewards for information on terrorism; introduces the procedure of identification of DNA of persons charged for committing terrorist crimes or any violent crime; introduced the concept of domestic terrorism and Federal crimes of terrorism, the prohibition on harboring terrorists and material support; there is a new crime — terrorist and other acts of violence against public transportation systems. The law abolished for the statute of limitations for crimes of terrorist orientation. In 2002 5 laws wer adopted: “Homeland Security Act of 2002”, “Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002”, “Aviation and Transportation Security Act“, “Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002”, “Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002”. The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act was adopted in 2006. This law restricted the financial assistance to the Palestinian national authority; Haqqani Network Terrorist Designation Act of 2012 included the Haqqani Network in the list of international terrorist organizations; the political act of refusal of admission to the United States representative to the United Nations, because he was accused of the occupation of the espionage or terrorist activities against the United States and poses a threat to the national security interests of the United States.

scholarly journals Lithium in the Green Energy Transition: The Quest for Both Sustainability and Security

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11274
Author(s):  
John D. Graham ◽  
John A. Rupp ◽  
Eva Brungard
Keyword(s):  
Energy Security ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Alternative Technologies ◽  
Global Rate ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
Made In

Considering the quest to meet both sustainable development and energy security goals, we explore the ramifications of explosive growth in the global demand for lithium to meet the needs for batteries in plug-in electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage. We find that heavy dependence on lithium will create energy security risks because China has a dominant position in the lithium supply chain and both Europe and North America seek to curtail reliance on China throughout their supply chains. We also find that efforts to expand lithium mining have been much less successful in Chile, the United States, and Europe than in Australia. Local communities resist licensing of new lithium mines due to a variety of environmental, social, and economic concerns. There are alternative technologies that may make lithium mining more sustainable such as direct lithium extraction, but the timing of commercialization of this process is uncertain. Progress is also being made in battery recycling and in alternative battery designs that do not use lithium. Such advances are unlikely to attenuate the global rate of growth in lithium demand prior to 2030. We conclude that tradeoffs between sustainability and energy security are real, especially in the next decade.

Security Information and Event Management Implementation Guidance

2013 ◽  
pp. 94-115
Author(s):  
Yushi Shen ◽  
Yale Li ◽  
Ling Wu ◽  
Shaofeng Liu ◽  
Qian Wen
Keyword(s):  
Information Security ◽  
Security Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Professional Judgment ◽  
Event Management ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Customer Information ◽  
Simple Step ◽  
Security Information ◽  
Security As A Service

This chapter is about guidance and implementation prepared by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Security as a Service (SecaaS) workgroup, which is made up of users and practitioners in the field of information security. In preparing this implementation guide, input has been sought from experts throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. A lot of professional judgment and experience are applied in the architecture, engineering, and implementation of a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) guide to ensure that it logs the information necessary to successfully increase visibility and remove ambiguity, surrounding the security events and risks that an organization faces. By providing SIEM as a service under SecaaS, the provider has to be able to accept log and event information, customer information and event feeds, and conduct information security analysis, correlation, and support incident response. By providing flexible real-time access to SIEM information, it allows the party consuming the SIEM service to identify threats acting against their environment cloud. This identification then allows for the appropriate action and response to be taken to protect or mitigate the threat. The simple step of increasing visibility and removing ambiguity is a powerful tool to understanding the information security risks that an organization is facing.

Teleworker's Security Risks Minimized with Informal Online Information Technology Communities of Practice

2009 ◽  
pp. 1387-1390
Author(s):  
Loreen Marie Powell
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Organizational Benefits ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Informal Information

The advancements of technology have altered the way many small businesses operate in the United States of America (USA) (Butcher-Powell, 2006). Small businesses have been forced to embrace technology or lose valuable employees and business. As such, many small businesses have merged to wireless networks and adopted various forms of telework. Today, it is estimated that more than 60% of the workforce are teleworkers (Butcher-Powell, 2006; DecisionOne, 2002). While moving to a remote workforce is good for small businesses, it also places a substantial amount of security risks upon the small business. Butcher-Powell (2006) documented some of the security risks associated with corporations employing a remote workforce, indicating that teleworker’s lack of information systems and security training can compromise the corporation’s network. The study investigates one particular method for aiding teleworker’s: informal information technology communities of practice in cyberspace. One hundred and forty four teleworker’s were surveyed on what sort of IT-related activities they devote time to, how much problem-solving they attempt via technology discussion groups with respect to those activities, and their perceived community and organizational benefits to participating in such discussion groups. The study found significant differences in perceived value of technology discussion groups among teleworkers.

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