> It's for this reason, supposedly, that we're asked to boot our laptops and so forth.
Not at all.
The TSA got credible information from intelligence agencies that there is a group who has the plan to manufacture bombs which are disguised as laptops. They would be manufactured such that they appear normal to the commonly used screening technologies. This is what we know. From here on it is speculation.
The easiest way to accomplish this is by replacing the battery of a laptop with explosives. You wouldn't want to have a mix of real battery and explosive though because that would be very hard to hide seamlessly on a scanner. So the theory is that these laptops would not function, and when being turned on they would appear to be out of battery.
So no. Being able to boot your laptop does not prove that you are not an "assassin". It proves that it has functioning batteries inside.
Besides how silly that is? I wager that we could teach mandolin stringing and laptop booting to anyone in an hour tops. Attacker or not. In fact anyone who can chew gum and walk at the same time can probably string a mandolin in 15 minutes (not to the exacting expectations of a real mandolin player, but to appear competent enough to a screening person.)
It's BS solution and another "security by obscurity" theatre since laptops like Thinkpad X250 have 2 batteries, one internal and one external which is removable. This is another proof that this "security" doesn't work, and anyone willing can go around it.
Seriously? We got "credible information?" Did we?
I've never been asked to boot my laptop. One been asked to turn on other things. Never a laptop. And it isn't like you could design a laptop to work with a bomb in it. Or maybe your battery is dead.
Not at all.
The TSA got credible information from intelligence agencies that there is a group who has the plan to manufacture bombs which are disguised as laptops. They would be manufactured such that they appear normal to the commonly used screening technologies. This is what we know. From here on it is speculation.
The easiest way to accomplish this is by replacing the battery of a laptop with explosives. You wouldn't want to have a mix of real battery and explosive though because that would be very hard to hide seamlessly on a scanner. So the theory is that these laptops would not function, and when being turned on they would appear to be out of battery.
So no. Being able to boot your laptop does not prove that you are not an "assassin". It proves that it has functioning batteries inside.
Besides how silly that is? I wager that we could teach mandolin stringing and laptop booting to anyone in an hour tops. Attacker or not. In fact anyone who can chew gum and walk at the same time can probably string a mandolin in 15 minutes (not to the exacting expectations of a real mandolin player, but to appear competent enough to a screening person.)