In recent weeks we have been given new restrictions on air travel due to terrorism. The only people these actions seem to stop or slow are the actual travellers, terrorists will always find a way around the restrictions or plan an attack in another way. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying they should ease them for the benefit of the traveller because there is no way for them to know who is or isn't a terrorist.
I see the same thing in computer security. The more security threats, the more patches we have to install or software to run, just to combat this threat and this just makes the user more frustrated when they try to use their machine. It is said that car thieves have switched to stealing motorcycles because car security has got so strong that it is easier to steal a bike than bother with a trying to steal a car.
The problem the government and airlines have is the number of people that use the airlines, and trying to get them from a to b safely. The governments don't want to restrict travellers too much because they know that they will lose revenue from tourists, plus the back lash from the media and voters. Airlines will lose revenue, not a good thing for business.
So whats the answer? This is a good question, I think it just has to be a mixture of trying to be restrictive practices and the intelligence community being alert to threats. When i first flew I have to admit that the security was the thing that worried me most, because i was worried i would be pulled to one side and stopped from flying. I've been a couple of times since and to be honest do not notice the delay and just accept that its something that needs to be done. It would be nice to just walk in, check in and walk straight on to the plane, but we can't take that risk anymore.
