One of the benefits of being Pre TSA is you skipped the full body scanners. Now, all those body scanners have been removed due to privacy concerns. And, thanks to independent research done by UC San Diego, University of Michigan, and John Hopkins we find out that these device basically suck as there are ways to sneak by explosives and guns. What?

Here is what the manufacturer and government would like all of to believe.

The researchers found they can hide a .380 ACP Pistol.

and C4 explosives.

How can the researchers do this? They bought a surplus scanner on eBay and spent time figuring out the flaws of the scanner.

The researchers attribute these shortcomings to the process by which the machines were designed and evaluated before their introduction at airports. “The system’s designers seem to have assumed that attackers would not have access to a Secure 1000 to test and refine their attacks,” said Hovav Shacham, a professor of computer science at UC San Diego. However, the researchers were able to purchase a government-surplus machine found on eBay and subject it to laboratory testing.

Many physical security systems that protect critical infrastructure are evaluated in secret, without input from the public or independent experts, the researchers said. In the case of the Secure 1000, that secrecy did not produce a system that can resist attackers who study and adapt to new security measures. “Secret testing should be replaced or augmented by rigorous, public, independent testing of the sort common in computer security,” said Prof. Shacham.