{"id":7247,"date":"2017-04-05T18:31:11","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T02:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/04\/05\/news-1038\/"},"modified":"2017-04-05T18:31:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T02:31:11","slug":"news-1038","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/04\/05\/news-1038\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. may expand laptop ban to more airports"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2017 18:09:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. might add other airports to its ban restricting passengers from bringing laptops and other electronics into the cabin for certain flights from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may take measures in the not too distant future to expand the number of airports,\u201d said Homeland Security secretary John Kelly on Wednesday during a congressional hearing.<\/p>\n

Last month, the U.S. announced the ban<\/a>, which affects ten airports, all of which are in Muslim-majority countries. Passengers flying to the U.S. are barred from bringing any electronic devices larger than a smartphone into a plane\u2019s cabin, and must instead check them in as baggage. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. declared the ban, citing terrorist threats. It has reportedly found that ISIS and other terrorist groups are developing<\/a> ways to plant bombs in electronic devices that can bypass airport security.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Kelly didn\u2019t elaborate on the technical nature of the risk, but said the terrorist threat was \u201creal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are dozens of cells that are talking about attacking aviation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After the U.S. announced the restrictions, the U.K. followed<\/a> with a similar ban. Canada is also studying whether to take action.<\/p>\n

Critics have questioned why the ban only affects certain countries. However, security standards at airports can be inconsistent, said Jeffrey Price, a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, who studies aviation security.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we\u2019re seeing is which airports have effective X-ray machines and which are old school,\u201d Price said in an email.<\/p>\n

The U.S., for instance, has more advanced screening technology that can detect bomb threats, but other countries use older X-ray machines that are less reliable. Forcing terrorists to stow a bomb-laden laptop in baggage can make it harder to detonate, and lessen the damage. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe laptop in the cabin gives the bomber the ability to essentially put it where he or she wants… like right over the wing,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the ban will inconvenience business travelers. They\u2019re being forced to check in their laptops as baggage too, making it easier for the products to get damaged or stolen, Price said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCountries with the ban have to fix this soon,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is one of those bans that cannot last.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the U.S. has said<\/a> that the ban will remain in place \u201cuntil the threat changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A more expanded ban might worry the PC industry. But companies involved such as Dell declined to speculate on its impact. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

PC maker HP said it was waiting to hear from the U.S. government to \u201cunderstand the thinking and security underpinnings of these measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/category\/security\/index.rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2017 18:09:00 -0700<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

The U.S. might add other airports to its ban restricting passengers from bringing laptops and other electronics into the cabin for certain flights from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may take measures in the not too distant future to expand the number of airports,\u201d said Homeland Security secretary John Kelly on Wednesday during a congressional hearing.<\/p>\n

Last month, the U.S. announced the ban<\/a>, which affects ten airports, all of which are in Muslim-majority countries. Passengers flying to the U.S. are barred from bringing any electronic devices larger than a smartphone into a plane\u2019s cabin, and must instead check them in as baggage. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[11062,10643],"tags":[714,11075],"class_list":["post-7247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computerworld","category-independent","tag-security","tag-technology-law-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}