Sunday, April 27, 2008

Pilot's Laptop Missing: Yes, It's a Big Deal

I just ran into this story, going over last week's news: "Pilot's Missing Laptop Causes Airport Security Scare" (ABC 7 News (April 24, 2008)).

"A pilot's laptop, filled with top secret security information was reported missing at Dulles Airport and the ripple effects were felt across the country." Quite a ripple, too: 17 airports changed their access codes - fast.

Those codes would have given someone - anyone - access from the gate to the plane, and the pavement below the plane. These days, that could be a very bad thing.

The odds are that the laptop had been stored in an overhead compartment, one that passengers had access to, and then stolen.

There's the usual talk of 'cracking down' and penalizing people who lose data like this, but I'm not sure that's the right approach.

This time, the pilot reported, promptly, that the laptop had gone missing.

Would anyone be more likely to make a report like that, knowing that it would cost them money, and maybe their career?

I think it would be better to include common sense and situational awareness in pilot training.

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.