Airports: Critical Questions

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Larry Anderson, Editor

Government investigators this month found that illegal immigrants had been granted unrestricted access to commercial airplanes at Chicago's O'Hare airport based on counterfeit security badges provided with the assistance of a temporary staffing agency. The workers had been employed to load food and cargo onto the airplanes.

The report — along with a seemingly continuing barrage of similar reports from airports across the country — serves to remind us again of how many different ways our airports may still be vulnerable.

Most of the flying public probably thought the airports were reasonably secure before Sept. 11, but in retrospect it was easy to see that they were tragically vulnerable. Much of what has happened since has centered on promoting an appearance of security in order to assuage the concerns of the flying public. But how secure should those O'Hare passengers feel if 20 unauthorized people are granted access and allowed to load items onto the plane?

How effectively are we analyzing exactly how much progress we have made? Are we spending too many resources specifying the size of a shampoo bottle or making sure passengers walk through the metal detectors in their sock feet? Are we over-focusing on the minutiae and leaving big, obvious, gaping holes in our security strategy?

Six years after the government took over passenger screening at our airports, the flying public has again become comfortable and complacent about airport security. But if security professionals let down their guard, the consequences could again be dire.

We welcome your feedback: E-mail landerson@securitysolutions.com

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue