Homeland Security chief considers banning laptops on all flights to and from U.S.

[dalton99a]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-laptop-plane-20170528-story.html

Homeland Security chief considers banning laptops on all flights to and from U.S.
Associated Press

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said Sunday that he's considering banning laptop computers from the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States.

That would dramatically expand a ban announced in March that affects about 50 flights a day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. The current ban was put in place because of concerns about terrorist attacks.

The ban forbids travelers from bringing laptops, tablets and certain other devices on board with them as carry-on items. All electronics bigger than a smartphone must be in checked luggage.

Kelly was asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether he would expand the ban to cover laptops on all international flights into and out of the U.S.

[sarah FAILIN]

1. Why is it ok in checked luggage is my question.

If it could still blow up, I don't wan it flying.

How people are supposed to do their business now without their laptops, I have no clue.

[Voltaire2]

8. I think this proposed ban is stupid nonsense but...

the luggage can be scanned for anything powered on at all and then those things that are powered on could be removed or subject to further inspection. I think the idea is that there is some sort of new explosive that can get through our current detectors and that could fit inside a laptop. To activate the device the laptop would have to be on.

However, quite frankly I would rather take the minuscule risk of being blown up midair rather than having to sit and stare at the back of the seat in front of me for six hours.

Plus I'm tired of perpetual war. Lets just declare peace.

ISIS can have some shitty regions of Syria and Iraq for their horrible caliphate. The Taliban can have Kabul and the southern regions of Afghanistan for their shitty caliphate. Trump can move to Moscow and get married to Putin. Kim Jung Un can have his little nukes and his shitty missiles. I'm sorry about everyone who is going to get fucked over by these tyrants but this idiotic war is going nowhere and never was, it was instead intended to last forever and usher in a rightwing authoritarian dystopia, which is in fact mission accomplished. But I digress....

[Hassin Bin Sober]

28. Maybe I'm mistaken but aren't laptops and computers always "on" with their internal clocks etc.?

Wouldn't you be able to program a laptop to power up at a designated time?

[Voltaire2]

31. Yes I agree the whole thing is stupid.

[dixiegrrrrl]

38. Yes. Which tells me there is another reason for the ban.

The so called "War on Terror" has been used to negatively impact a lot of our rights, privacy. I don't think rational people can disagree with that.
It has been about 6 months since I first started hearing about banning laptops.
Then banning laptops was put into place, but "only" in potential terrorist places/flights.

and I said...just watch, they will apply it all flights.
and Mr. dixie said, nah, there would no reason to have ALL passengers give up their computers..and Nooks/Kindle.
( My Nook goes with me anytime I have to go anywhere. You never know when you will end waiting on something)

and yet, we are unpatriotic if we object to all the post 9-11 laws controlling our behavior.

So in my best patriotic voice, I ask...what is the real reason?

[hlthe2b]

10. Not only just as readily "detonated" but more likely to ignite accidentally.

with no one aware the fire was smoldering until it was too late.

This notion is no solution to anything.

[Kentonio]

2. The blowback from business would be massive.

Many of us are not allowed to leave our company laptops unattended because it would make highly conflidential data vulnerable. Combine that with baggage handlers throwing baggage around like it was a softball and you have a giant potential mess.

I'd also love to know exactly why those scanners for carry on are even there if they think they couldn't detect explosives. Yet the stuff going into the hold is more carefully checked? Really? That makes absolutely zero sense.

[emulatorloo]

5. The intelligence Trump leaked from Israeli intelligence said explosive could not be detected

By the scanners.

Intel was folk were at work on an explosive embedded in a laptop. The explosive wouldn't be visible to the scanners/x_rays. That was the purpose of it.

My assumption is that it mimics hardware you'd expect to see in a laptop if you X-rayed it. Just speculation though.

[Kentonio]

6. So how does it help sticking it in the cargo hold?

[emulatorloo]

7. I don't know. Depends on how the explosive is set off.

If it requires some direct human interaction to set off then wouldn't go off in cargo hold.

If it could be set off remotely or there is a timer, then it wouldn't help.

Ask Israeli intelligence or somebody in Isis.

[Kentonio]

11. Shouldn't the explanation be given to us?

Given that they're the ones wanting us to make a radical change to how we travel and do business? Over and over they introduce these new limitations which make air travel ever more difficult and aggravating, yet apparently despite it being the terrorists who are already planning this stuff we're not allowed to know why? That seems strange to me.

[emulatorloo]

14. "considers banning laptops"

If it gets past the "considers" phase, they'll need to explain it.

[Kentonio]

15. That's fair enough.

[csziggy]

33. At one point they were developing containers for the cargo

Apparently they haven't been implemented because of cost and weight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bomb-proof lining contains explosion in luggage hold of aircraft
July 24, 2015

A bomb-proof lining developed by an international team of scientists, including academics from the University of Sheffield, has successfully contained blasts in a series of controlled explosions in the luggage hold of a Boeing 747 and an Airbus 321.

The Fly-Bag, which lines an aircraft's luggage hold with multiple layers of novel fabrics and composites, was tested under increasing explosive charges on disused planes at Cotswolds Airport, near Cirencester, this week.

Using this technology, the tests have demonstrated that a plane's luggage hold may be able to contain the force of an explosion should a device concealed within a passenger's luggage be detonated during a flight. This would mitigate damage to the plane and help keep passengers safe.

After the tests, explosives were placed in the aircraft without the lining to show the damage that could be caused.

Disasters such as the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 drove the need for this kind of invention, as well as the incident in which a printer cartridge bomb was found on-board a cargo plane at East Midlands Airport in 2010.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2015-07-bomb-proof-lining-explosion-luggage-aircraft.html#jCp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[WoonTars]

36. Airlines make their money from Business and First Class tickets...

....this will not be implemented without a huge fight from the airlines...

Above and beyond the fact that no-one is going to put their valuable laptops in regular baggage, especially now that you can't lock your bags.

[hatrack]

3. Gosh, that'll boost business travel for SURE!

[emulatorloo]

9. Yes it would be horrible is those Type-A types were denied access on an international flight.

of several hours.

Businesses would collapse left and right if that crowd can't work on Microsoft Office 24/7

Even worse is that I might be able to get some sleep with the jerk next to me elbowing me and turning up the brightness on his LED backlit screen.

[Kentonio]

13. It's not about being able to work

It's about trusting highly confidential data out of people's possession and into the hands of a process we already know to be unsafe and slapdash.

[emulatorloo]

16. Come on over. I'll show you how I pack sensitive electronics into a checked suitcase.

I'll go buy a six-pack before you get here.

If this intelligence is correct, I'd rather folks lived thru international flights than deal with the remote risk that TSA are secretly there to do industrial espionage against their business travelers.

[angrychair]

22. It not just "industrial" espionage

Defense contractors and DOD and DOE can carry sensitive, non-classified, information on laptops as well.
Typically the hard drive is encrypted but a damaged or lost device is a paperwork and more importantly a PR nightmare.
you already have to take a laptop out, put it in its own bin and run it through a scanner. That isn't safe enough? Plus me putting it in my checked bag is safer? Tens of thousands of bags go through that process, how many are actually scanned any better than that? None because the laptop stays in the bag.

Far more importantly we are telling the world of terrorists that our boarding gate screening process isn't good enough. I mean I have to just about get naked to board a plane and get my whole body scanned but I'm still not safe?? Sorry that is bullshit. Also by OVERREACTING like this, we again call into question the safety of flying and our ability to stop attacks like this.

[emulatorloo]

25. Again the Intel apparently referred a plot to make explosive laptops that pass through scanners

without being detected.

I speculate maybe the explosive mimics a component that you'd expect to see if you were TSA operating the x-ray scanner.

A bomb that looks like a ssd, a motherboard etc.

I'm just speculating of course, I don't know cuz I'm not privy to that info. Unless Trump decides to leak it to me.

If we're talking about sensitive info carried by Defence contractors, DOD, and DOE, I expect those folks will be exempt.

I don't really want to post in this thread anymore.

Basically I think it follows a typical pattern at DU:

We light our hair on fire a lot, only to pull an Emily Latella "oh, never mind" when more info comes out.

[WoonTars]

37. Everything carried by every business person on their laptops is considered confidential..

.. not just people with security credentials...you get that, right?

[Voltaire2]

4. At this point "Homeland" security could demand we all fly butt naked and we would comply.

[emulatorloo]

12. Could be fun!

[Voltaire2]

17. could be horrifying

[emulatorloo]

18. I'll be sure to wear a flowing mumu.

Hyperbole is fun though, thanks for your post.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

30. I'm going to start "Rendition Airline"

Everyone gets drugged and diapered for the entire flight. Not only do you get to sleep through the entire flight, you can rest assured no one else will pull any shenanigans.

Luggage, clothes and personal belonging fly on a separate flight.

The cost of two airplanes gets made up by stacking passengers like chord wood.

[MedusaX]

19. To and from US... FROM? Then why not domestic flights as well?

This makes no sense on many levels...

1. Initially it was incoming flights from 10 specific locations....

So why a jump to all inbound & outbound flights ?
Yet, exclude domestic ?


2. Explosivity is not automatically mitigated by point of origin ...
so an explosion in the cargo area is still going to result in damage...

3. Carry on search processes are far more likely to identify an anomaly.....than a checked baggage search

4. If there is potential for an outbound passenger to possess a laptop with the mystery device ...
then why would there not be an equal risk for all flights... domestic and international.....????

So, what conditions are actually being addressed?

For whatever reason,
passengers having access to a laptop
while flying from one continent to another
Is the problem....

So,
What can One do with a laptop that cannot be done with a smart phone?

What is the significance of intercontinental flight paths with regards to the laptop functionality/capability variable?

What external communication networks would be accessible by an altered /modified laptop size device ..from the cabin of an airplane... while following any given international flight path to/from USA

And what could be accessed or communicated with or overridden or hacked via those networks?

[kimbutgar]

20. Now on international flights the movies on certain planes are only accessible by

A laptop or tablet. I guess they want us to go back to reading books on planes like we did 25 years ago.

Too many people are addicted now to their laptops, and tablets I predict a massive pushback for the public. I wonder who will make a profit off this ban?

[dalton99a]

23. I predict an explosion in sales of Harlequin novels, Bibles, crossword puzzles

and Tips & Tricks on Toe and Finger Counting

[Ilsa]

29. And LOTS more drinking and bathroom sex.

The attendants are going to revolt.

[Iggo]

21. And what can a plane-exploder do with a laptop or tablet that s/he can't do with a smart phone?

[Voltaire2]

24. presumably a bigger bomb.

phone is sort of too small.

[emulatorloo]

26. I still get a kick out of it when the flight crew announces no Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones

[Iggo]

27. So the laptop or iPad is the actual explosive and not just the trigger.

Now I get it. My brain didn't go that way.

[Voltaire2]

32. its both.

[eleny]

34. He's a knothead

[MissMillie]

35. You know...

there was actually a time when the phone rang and there was no one there to answer it. The phone was tethered to the wall. There was no answering machine.

Then came the answering machine.

Then came over-night mail.

Then came the cell phone.

Then came text messages.

Then came "aps"

and then human contact became obsolete.


I don't hate technology, but I do not like what it is doing to us.