Sooo. I mapped the 2000 to 2014 Laser Strike Incidents - Sorta

UPDATE: Soooo. I kinda didn't like the map. I looked over the map and noticed I was missing some information. I'll plug it in, when I get a sec. Until then, I embedded the data itself. Oh and I included 2015 to 2018. Yeah. I'm awesome like that.

Huge nerd here. Yup. I was talking with Doug Patteson, one of the dopest people on the Interwebz, about laser strike incidents. Basically, it's when some idiot decides to take a laser and aim it at flying aircraft. It's incredibly stupid because it could potentially blind pilots and crash airplanes. Law enforcement has stepped its game up since we first heard of these things. Alas, I digress.

Check out the map. I didn't collect the data. These dudes did and they did some great analysis on it as well.

The State of Aviation Security

I have often said our biggest vulnerabilities can be found in places where people congregate. Human targets are often selected by bad guys simply because they are part of a crowd. This goes against our natural instinct to believe bad actors won't pursue us in a crowd and will wait until we're alone. This is true for some attackers. However, terrorists and active shooters pick crowds because our intolerance towards suffering any casualties makes a target-rich environment like a mall an almost irresistible target. The meme above personifies how often we protect against the last known vulnerability and losing sight of the vulnerabilities we create or ignore.

Here's the scene of a major airport's TSA screening area. Notice the crowd aka potential targets.

INTERVIEW: The Coolest Mass Spectrometer At the Airport You Know Nothing About - The Griffin 824

Griffin 824 in operation (Photo FLIR)

Last week, I had the privilege and esteemed honor to interview Garth Patterson from FLIR about a product I’m dying to tell you about – the Griffin 824.  Before I begin, I’d like to remind you I was in military law enforcement/security for 10 years.  However, my knowledge of the science behind the Griffin 824 is cursory at best.  So, I called every person I knew who understood mass spectrometry to give me a brief tutorial.  As you can tell, Garth explained things perfectly.

Garth, can you tell me about your background and the product?  Let’s begin with you and then what it actually does?

Well, I’m the program manager for the Griffin 824.  I previously worked for Griffin before it became a part of FLIR.  The device is a mass spectrometry device which analyzes chemical compounds at the molecular level.  It is used in a variety of field applications ranging from corrections, law enforcement, border crossings, airports, etc. It looks for explosives and narcotic traces from a user-gathered sample.

Wow, that sounds pretty interesting.  How exactly does it do that? *At this point, I’m hoping Garth doesn’t go over my head.*

What happens is the user swipes a surface with a 1-inch paper-like sheet.  The sheet contains a surface area that picks up trace elements from the surface to be examined.  The user then inputs the sample in the Griffin 824 which then inserts the sheet between two stainless steel plates.  The plates are heated to vaporize the sheet and the elements.  The ions are then manipulated using electromagnetic fields and an analysis is conducted using software in the Griffin 824.  The device can differentiate between “junk” and actual compounds.  Something ion scanners previously weren’t so good with. 

How does a user know they have a “hit”?

The machine will display a green light at the initial startup and will then go to yellow when analyzing.  After the analysis is complete, the light will either go green again to signal a negative result or go red to annunciate a positive result.

How long does it take to start up the 824?

It takes approximately 20 minutes. Though, analysis takes about 10 seconds.

Why mass spectrometry?

It’s the standard for quality lab analysis for chemical compounds.  It’s also court-friendly.

So what separates this from the lab?

It can be taken into the field.  Mass spectrometry uses a lot of big expensive equipment in a lab, as is the case with Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.  Because it’s transportable as a single unit and has many field user-friendly applications, it’s a natural fit for field analysis.

Going over some of the literature, it claims the 824 is equipped for both audio and visual alert cues. 

Yes.  We felt there was a need for operators not to have a loud, audible cue annunciate in front of a subject.

Are there any other applications that set the Griffin 824 apart from other technology?

It’s network addressable.  This means you can presumably plug the 824 into a network and have results shared over a network to a command and control center.  The 824 also has administrative and user profiles for individual operators in addition to a USB report for flash drives.  The screen is also a touch screen.  There is also no carrier gases needed which means no big helium tanks.  The unit is self-contained.  Given its ease of use, it takes a little under a day to train personnel on how to use the 824.

Garth, to say I’m impressed is an understatement.  How long from inception to production?

About 4 years.  We have another mass spectrometer, the Griffin 460 where we received feedback from operators wanting something for field use for narcotics and explosive detection analysis.  We saw the biggest need initially in airports for trace detection.

Garth, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me.  It was truly an honor.  

For more on the Griffin 824, please click on the links below.

FLIR Griffin 824 web page

FLIR Griffin 824 Datasheet 

FLIR Prison Narcotics Detection - Griffin 824

To see the Griffin 824 in action check out the video below (no audio)

Turkish Airport Security Caught Playing FPS Game On-Duty

First person shooter games are all the rage now and have clearly defined a new era of gaming.  However, as this picture below from Istanbul demonstrates, there is a time and place for everything.  Perhaps, playing Call of Duty, while on-duty as an airport security officer in a major international airport, is neither the time or the place.

(Captured from reddit.com user 26985's post on 1/2/2012)

You found what in his pants?!

So this has been a rather peculiar week for the guys and gals at TSA.  Check out the latest find a screener made this week in Buffalo.

A passenger opted out of the body scanner at Buffalo (BUF) and during
the pat-down, a 9” nonmetallic serrated knife was found in his pants pocket.
The passenger stated later that he opted out of the body scanner  because he was
trying to get the knife through security. 

SWAT vs Airline Pilots

I've taken the cartoon down out of respect for the artist's copyright (no cease and desist letter yet - just want to be sure he's getting his due). In case you forgot, it's a political cartoon with a really interesting look at where the public's perception is of our current security climate. Click here to see the link.

Homeland Security Week

I found a website I think my readers might enjoy called Homeland Security Week. It is an Internet television network dedicated to homeland security. the topics they have are very thought-provoking and well presented. Click here for a video I just finished watching on airport security. It gives behind the scenes footage of GAO red-teams penetrating airports. Ouch!

Another Incident at Heathrow

SkyNews is reporting a man was arrested after jumping a perimeter ence at Heathrow International Airport shortly after 2pm and was tackled by armed officers on the northern runway. The entire northern runway was shutdown while police handled the situation.

This comes just before the grand opening of the new terminal at Heathrow tomorrow. Guess who is supposed to be in attendance? Her Majesty, of course...This Heathrow's second big intrusion in the last two weeks. The last was by a group calling themselves "Plane Stupid". We've also covered their last two acts in previous blog posts along with a brief background report. It should be noted the group has denied any involvement.

Old Scary news from Phoenix

I just finished watching some pretty scary footage of airport security at Phoenix International from July 2007. ABC15 News did an expose of security issues at SkyHarbor . The information they reported was quite scary. They found the City of Phoenix used a private security firm (more intel on that as I get it) who provided security during non-flying hours. Does anybody remember the days before TSA? TSA can be scary but at least they're an improvement from where we were at before. The City of Phoenix had certainly forgotten this.

The results were disastrous almost. The news crew found bags were not searched adequately or not at all. Employee badges were checked by a guard who may or not have been following standard security procedures. Many times entire suitcases and huge newspaper dollies made their way in. At one point the news crew found a guard sleeping who readily admitted sleeping on the job for periods at a time. You don't have to be genius to figure out that some got fired (as they should have been).

Any time a news crew (no offense) can expose the flaws within your security you've got problems. Phoenix has made some improvements, but I would bet their weakest link is their people. Watch the video here. It speaks volumes.