The Security Mentor

The US Transportation Safety Administration inspects some checked baggage for dangerous items. The airlines, meanwhile, have spent generations urging people to lock their checked luggage to discourage theft (which makes me wonder -- wouldn't it be easier, with less chance of getting noticed, for a thief to grab the whole suitcase and go through it someplace away from the airport, instead of opening the bag on site?)

One solution is to lock your luggage with locks that can be opened with a master key that all TSA inspectors have a copy of.

How many employees does the TSA have, what fraction of a percent are dishonest, and how much money would there be in selling a copy of the master key to baggage thieves?

It might not be that bad. Unless there are well organized crime families of baggage thieves, the crooks can't raise enough money to tempt a TSA inspector. Even then, the damage would probably be contained. A baggage thief isn't likely to share the key with competing baggage thieves.

If your security consultant bills your for time spent deciding that something is low risk, it's because he/she needed time to analyze the situation like I did above to see how serious the threat is.

Don't be afraid to question your security consultant, either, because it's easy to overlook something. Can you spot the hole in the analysis above?

There are organized criminals, with boatfulls of money, who have an interest in getting access to checked baggage. You could call this the Midnight Express scenario. Baggage handlers have helped smuggle drugs. Allegedly, in the case of Schapelle Corby, corrupt baggage handlers have planted drugs in innocent people's luggage and if their confederates at the destination fail to retrieve the drugs, guess who's left holding the bag? Just guess how impressed the police will be when you tell them that someone must have planted the drugs on you. They probably hear that on every arrest they make.

YOu can't buy a luggage lock that will stop someone determined, but you can get one that (unlike a TSA lock) has to be cut in order to open your suitcase. Petty thieves and drug smugglers will probably pick one of the thousands of easier targets instead.

Or just FedEx your luggage to your destination and eliminate the wait at the carousel, the uncertainty that it will arrive, and the huffing and puffing at both ends of the trip.