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:: 7.31.2003 ::
I just read a really interesting article, found on Fark, discussing a paper written by two MIT grad students that they say proves passenger profiling in aiports will always catch fewer terrorists than would random searches. CAPPS was put into place in 1999. The system profiles passengers and identifies those who should get extra security screening. While the parameters of the system are classified, anyone who is flagged for extra screening knows it as soon as they are pulled aside for special treatment. Chakrabarti and Strauss show, through computer modeling, how the terrorists can easily defeat the system. Put simply, it's all about trial and error. For example, let's say a terrorist cell sends 20 different guys through the airport (with no weapons and no intent to harm), the person who consistently passes through security without extra scrutiny is the best person to send on a destructive mission in the air. The terrorists basically conclude this guy is "profile proof."
On the other hand, according to the MIT grad students, if the airports employed only random searches the terrorists would not be able to practice against the system. The MIT research explains it this way: an average airport has the ability to do extra screening on eight percent of the passengers. Currently, the CAPPS system uses profile criteria to choose up to six percent of those people for extra screening, the remaining two percent are selected randomly. But if all eight percent were selected randomly, the MIT research shows there is a better chance of catching terrorists or people hiding weapons. That's because with a purely random system, potential terrorists would have no way of knowing ahead of time if they were likely to receive extra screening and they would have no way of practicing against the system. The author of the current profiling system, CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System), Doug Laird, was unable to disprove their findings, though he did say he thought that gaming CAPPS would be prohibitively expensive in terms of both time and money.
Full story here.
:: Deb 11:57 AM :: permalink ::
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