securoseal

Hi everyone,

Thank you for taking the time to check out Securoseal and your comments. As a number of questions have been raised, I thought I would contribute a response from our point of view and provide some further information about TSA accepted locks and airport environments generally. As the forum rightly prohibits product SPAM, I will limit my responses only to the issues directly raised in this thread (so on a question by question basis as raised by the forum members above) and will endeavour to give you answers to the questions asked. If there are further questions from readers, please feel free to ask.

1. Chx1975 commented: a) http://securoseal.com/ is this useful?

Securoseal was developed in response to an airport investigation by Sir Wheeler in Australia following a wave of public concern following the Schapelle Corby case. We do not comment on the merits of the Corby case, but the presence of organised crime within Australia’s airport environment was confirmed by the Wheeler investigation and a subsequent Australian Standards forum was held to try and solve the vulnerabilities with checked luggage. During this forum, many lock makers and suitcase manufacturers pitched their product, but none could solve the risks identified by the Australian Federal Police associated with luggage already in circulation (namely, undetected zip breaches and other tampering).

This is because classic locks suffer from a number of deficits. There include:
I. They do not isolate the zip sliders on the zip chain, allowing a criminal to separate the zip, gain access, and subsequently rejoin the zippers by moving the locked zip sliders over the area that has been breached.
II. As they open and close repetitively according to their functional design and are of variable quality, locks can usually be simply manipulated to release without any indication for the user, allowing hidden / unauthorised access to the luggage, even if the lock is in a fixed position on the bag (please see the ‘zip breach’ link above, for an example of a fixed position TSA accepted lock picked with a paperclip – there are also many other examples available on youtube. For an independent review of the security offered by these devices, please also look at this report by Security.org).
III. There is no way to verify that a lock has been opened and resealed, or if missing, no receipt system to act as evidence of its initial presence on the bag during check in.
IV. As every piece of luggage is sealed differently and tampering can be concealed, security agents and passengers at airports can only detect tampering activity if they catch the perpetrator ‘in the act’ or they subsequently open their case with knowledge of the contents.

Simply speaking, we took this list and made a device that checks all the boxes by design:
I. It isolates zip sliders to the band, so breaches cannot be hidden.
II. It seals ONCE – and if any component is opened, it leaves tamper evidence that you can see. Unlike the TSA accepted lock system, we control our production process ourselves and use components from major companies like 3M and DuPont, so our product is reliable.
III. Every component is bar coded and numerically identified with a receipt that can be attached to your ticket at check in. Our guidelines of use to help you record the event, to increase your security against smuggling allegations or to action a case of luggage theft.
IV. Securoseal can also be used as a ‘sealing standard’ by authorities. We have worked on a trial basis in international aviation facilities with both airline and airport authority to apply the seal with corresponding security protocols to ‘at risk’ flight routes with excellent results. We are continuing our work in this regard to ensure the product is a useful solution to luggage security issues.

2. RevJim commented:

a) Price point - The listed price on the website currently includes shipping / taxes which is international for US buyers (this actually is a significant proportion of the listed price). We are currently in the process of setting up a domestic distribution for the US market, which should result in postage savings for US consumers. Other regions are also in the pipeline.

b) What if DHS opens your suitcase for inspection during transit - The TSA has a legal right to search your luggage – no matter what you use. Regardless, every passenger has a right to know if their luggage has been breached, whether by legal or illegal means. In respect of the TSA’s searching activity, while every bag is electronically screened, the TSA has confirmed that only a very small percentage are opened by the TSA. This means you also only have a very small percentage chance that your seal will be disturbed by manual TSA searches (single digit percentages, actually). To put that into context, even if you travelled through an airport once every three days for an entire year, if you had a ‘normal’ search experience, out of over 100 trips, you could count the number of legitimate times your seal was breached on your fingers. Regardless of this fact, we are currently speaking to the TSA regarding our product to see if we can further address this concern. Conversely, statistics are that six to ten other handlers come into contact with your luggage out of view of passengers prior to it being delivered to you at your destination point (same source above). This number will increase if you pass through multiple airports, also increasing your risk. For this exposure, in our opinion the small chance of a TSA manual search disturbing a seal is just not worth the risk of leaving luggage unprotected. Particularly in an international context, where you are subject to customs law and you are deemed to be responsible for the contents of your luggage upon arrival.

c) How helpful is it to know if your bag was opened or not? – In my opinion, very helpful. There are two risks affecting travellers who check luggage – theft and smuggling. Regarding theft, our trial experiences tell us that thieves target luggage that is least likely to arouse immediate suspicion. Tamper evident luggage protection allows both security and the passenger to detect tampering in real time – increasing the likelihood of offenders being caught by reducing the window of time from offence to discovery – this is a deterrent to crime. Thieves do not want to be caught – after all, why risk exposure on a sealed bag when you can simply move to the next one that is unprotected? For smuggling, the risks are magnified for the passenger. Most passengers expect a presumption of innocence to apply, but many countries place a prima facie onus on passengers which reverses the onus of proof onto the passenger when taking their luggage through customs. In this scenario, you are held responsible for the contents of luggage unless you can prove those contents are not yours. Perhaps the best example of this risk is the recent case of NY Yankees guard Roger Levans, who was recently wrongfully arrested for having cocaine inserted into his luggage by a smuggling network involving baggage handlers at Guyana and JFK airports. When discovered, he was arrested, subject to two investigations and lost his job during this period – all while maintaining his innocence. He was fortunate that other passengers also were also caught out by this ring in similar circumstances. Three months later that he was released from a charge that could have seen him spending 40 years in prison. He is now suing his carrier airline for his ordeal. Sounds like Hollywood, but it is fact. This is also not an isolated problem. Within the US, the problem is also acknowledged by authorities as a risk. With JFK Airport as an example in itself, there have been ongoing incidents of such activity involving airport personnel since 2003 (see previous link). In this context, knowing whether the internal contents of your luggage may have changed is not only helpful to your travel experience, but also critical for your personal security.

d) If the seal is broken, what do you do with the information and how helpful is it getting your stuff back? – as mentioned above, we have put together some guidelines of use on the website for instances where tampering has occurred which may assist you in defence of a smuggling claim. In respect of theft, it will also assist you in a claim with the airlines, as it will decrease the time taken to discover theft (ie: you can claim at the airport immediately upon arrival – and before you have taken custody of your luggage) and it will also assist in proving to the airline that an act of tampering has definitively occurred. If you carry additional baggage insurance, it will also be another point of evidence to substantiate your claim.

Thanks & regards,

Dion @ Securoseal.com
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