Big Brother Really Is Watching

Researchers are developing indicators for potential violent behavior, which are used in computerized architectural frameworks that help analysts extract relevant data as they review documents. "Computers help in running the models. As you put the data together, you get likelihood coefficients for violent behavior. Our goal is to get that automated for the analysts," says Rausch.

The "information-extraction tools" will assist analysts by identifying important information as they're reading it, but they won't replace analysts. "We're doing it in a way that's consistent with the way analysts think," Rausch says.

Another developing area is biometrics. Research is focused on developing mobile readers that can perform facial, fingerprint and iris recognition. "As we push out in years, we'll get into remote biometric [sensors]," as well as more refined, "10-print" fingerprint recognition, says Rausch.

The systems will tap into "huge databases for identification and verification," she says.

Other TSA Technologies

The TSA may eventually use the behavior profiling systems that come from Project Hostile Intent, but that's just one part of the agency's transportation security strategy. The layered approach includes "a technology factor, a human factor and shared intelligence," a spokesperson says.

The TSA's passenger screening technology hasn't changed since the magnetometer, a metal detector, was introduced in 1973, but it's working on other technologies including a so-called advanced technology X-ray. This high-resolution X-ray system provides clearer images of the contents of carry-on baggage and offers multiple viewing angles. The machines are already widely used in Europe. The TSA has purchased 250 of them and plans to have a total of 500 installed by the end of 2008.

That's a fraction of the 751 checkpoints and 2,000 lanes in service, but 500 machines is enough to cover 75% of the security lanes at the nation's largest airports, which represent 45% of all travelers.

Another technology is the puffer machine. The subject walks into this phone booth-like device, and translucent bifold doors close around him. The machine then blasts the subject with a burst of compressed air and analyzes it for trace amounts of explosives. The puffer is already in testing in some airports but hasn't worked well. "They're OK, but I think we'll go more in the direction of whole-body imaging," says a spokesperson.

In whole body imaging, a machine bombards the subject with radio-frequency energy as he walks through and creates a very accurate image of his body -- perhaps too accurate -- in order to detect any foreign objects. "There's a whole lot of privacy issues with this," a spokesperson acknowledges.

The TSA is testing two technologies: One, called back scatter, uses a privacy algorithm that changes the image to a "chalk outline" of the body while the other, called millimeter wave, creates what looks like a negative.

To address privacy concerns, facial images are blurred, and images aren't saved. In addition, the screener who sees the passenger never sees the images.

The machines are already in use in Phoenix, where passengers can choose a pat-down instead, and will show up at Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport soon. "You'll see more whole-body imaging [in 2008], a spokesperson says.

Caveats and Ethical Issues

Even if Project Hostile Intent ultimately succeeds, it will not be a panacea for preventing terrorism, says Schneier. The risk can be reduced, but not eliminated, he says. "If we had perfect security in airports, terrorists would go bomb shopping malls," he says. "You'll never be secure by defending targets."

Assuming that the system gets off the ground, Project Hostile Intent also faces challenges from privacy advocates.

Although the system would use remote sensors that are physically "noninvasive," and there are no plans to store the information, the amount of personal data that would be gathered concerns privacy advocates -- as does the possibility of false positives.

"We are not going to catch any terrorists, but a lot of innocent people, especially racial and ethnic minorities, are going to be trapped in a web of suspicion," says Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington.

But Steinhardt isn't really worried. He says Project Hostile Intent is just the latest in a long string of expensive and failed initiatives at the DHS and the TSA. "I've done hundreds of interviews about these [airline-passenger screening] schemes," he says. "They never work." Steinhardt adds that "hundreds of billions" of dollars have been wasted on such initiatives since 9/11. "Show me it works before [we] debate the civil liberties consequences," he says.

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