Pulling Back the Curtain on Airport Security: Can a Weapon Get Past TSA?

Presented at Black Hat USA 2014, Aug. 6, 2014, 3:30 p.m. (60 minutes)

Every day, millions of people go through airport security. While it is an inconvenience that could take a while, most are willing to follow the necessary procedures if it can guarantee their safety. Modern airport security checkpoints use sophisticated technology to help the security screeners identify potential threats and suspicious baggage. Have you ever wondered how these devices work? Have you ever wondered why an airport security checkpoint was set up in a particular configuration? Join us as we present the details on how a variety of airport security systems actually work, and reveal their weaknesses. We'll present what we have learned about modern airport security procedures, dive deep into the devices used to detect threats, and we'll present some the bugs we discovered along the way.


Presenters:

  • Billy Rios - Qualys
    Billy is the Director of Vulnerability Research at Qualys. Billy studies emerging threats with a focus on embedded devices, Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and Critical Infrastructure (CI). Before Qualys, Billy was a Technical Lead at Google where he led the front-line response for externally reported security issues and incidents. Prior to Google, Billy was the Security Program Manager at Internet Explorer (Microsoft). During his time at Microsoft, Billy led the company's response for several high profile incidents, including the response for Operation Aurora. Before Microsoft, Billy worked as a penetration tester, an intrusion detection analyst, and served as an active duty Marine Corps Officer.

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