Digital Parsimony

Wired just had an interesting post about airport security. We know that they check our shoes and make us throw out our toothpaste for our own good, but is it actually stopping terrorists?

No terrorist is going to base his plot on getting a gun through airport security if there’s decent chance of getting caught, because the consequences of getting caught are too great.

Contrast that with a terrorist plot that requires a 12-ounce bottle of liquid. There’s no evidence that the London liquid bombers actually had a workable plot, but assume for the moment they did. If some copycat terrorists try to bring their liquid bomb through airport security and the screeners catch them — like they caught me with my bottle of pasta sauce — the terrorists can simply try again. They can try again and again. They can keep trying until they succeed. Because there are no consequences to trying and failing, the screeners have to be 100 percent effective. Even if they slip up one in a hundred times, the plot can succeed.

So, should we make everyone fly naked or stop throwing out people’s jars of pasta-sauce and nail clippers?
Security Matters: Airport Pasta-Sauce Interdiction Considered Harmful