MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – A recent study carried out by three American universities has shown that the full-body scanners which had been deployed in US airports until 2013, and are still being used in courts and penal institutions, fail to detect hidden weapons such as guns and knives.
“Frankly, we were shocked by what we found,” said J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, in his statement, published by UC San Diego News Center. “A clever attacker can smuggle contraband past the machines using surprisingly low-tech techniques.”
Researchers bought a full-body scanner, the Rapiscan Secure 1000, via eBay and carried out a series of tests, disclosing several vulnerable spots in the scanning system. In some cases, the scanner turned out to be inefficient in the monitoring and detection of inventively concealed weapons, NY Daily News reports. For instance, it missed guns which had been sewn into the leg of the pants or fastened to a person’s leg with tape, since the weapons were indistinguishable against the dark background. Among other prohibited items which the scanner failed to discover were simulated C-4 plastic explosives and knives covered with teflon tape so that the machine identified them as a part of a human spine.
In their statement, which was published by NY Daily News, researchers claimed that such low-tech tricks can be easily used by those who have access to the device and, consequently, are able to check and improve their concealing techniques. The machines perform only front and back scans, so it was easy to miss the weapons, which were carefully hidden. Side screening could make the detection of the weapons more successful, researchers say.
