Body scanner debuts at London's Paddington
Print storyFour-week trial for terror-busting gadget
Posted in Music and Media, 12th January 2006 13:52 GMT
See what The Register's experts have to say on application security
Passengers boarding London's Heathrow Express at Paddington are advised to allow a little more time for their journey since they may find themselves on the receiving end of a four-week, £500k trial of a US-built body scanner.
According to the BBC, passengers will be selected at random to enter a booth, raise their arms above their head and get scanned. Their luggage is probed separately by conventional X-ray machine. The body scanner is a millimeter wave machine - aka a "see through clothes scanner" - made by Santa Clara, California-based Safeview Inc and operated by Surrey-based Airlock Aviation Ltd.
There will reportedly be further tests at other locations, but the government has already ruled out blanket airport-style security on London's transport system on the perfectly reasonable grounds that it is completely impractical. The idea is deterrence, as Blair spokesman Tom Kelly put it: "We have to do everything we can to ensure that people know that there are security operations in place. If people believe that there is a chance they will be searched, that enhances security."
In reality, the Paddington test is purely to try out the technology, and is not intended as a real security screening exercise. ®
The future of SaaS and IT infrastructure management
The mandate for application security
Extended Validation SSL Certificates
Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance
CIO strategies for the retention and deletion of email
Win a Samsung C6625!
Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?
Windows 7, Bing and security: Mr Ballmer regrets
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter