Fergie's Tech Blog

Airplane Bombing Plot Spurs 'Targeting' Technology

William P. Dizard III writes on GCN.com:

Technologies for pinpointing risky passengers drew renewed attention from Homeland Security Department officials following the recent terrorist airliner bombing plot. But wrangling over privacy policy remained a pivotal factor in evaluation of the data-mining technology.

DHS secretary Michael Chertoff pledged that security officials would put added emphasis on “targeting tools” at airports, a term generally understood to include applications that finger terrorists by sifting through vast databases about travelers.

Meanwhile, one major vendor of systems that DHS and other federal agencies use to detect threats said the aircraft bombing plot focused attention on software that analyzes security camera images to help security personnel identify risky travelers.

posted by Fergie @ 8/24/2006 01:29:00 PM