Thanks for the welcome

There is lots of information out there concerning these issues, but much of it is fragmented. We keep a database of news reports for this very reason. Any environment which deals with the mass transportation of valuable items over different jurisdictions presents an opportunity for crime to occur. Airports are no exception.

In airports, and we see quite a few in our line of work, there are obviously different standards of security depending on the resources different jurisdictions have at their disposal. They all do their best to provide safe transport of luggage, but the environment itself makes this difficult. Millions of pieces of luggage, transported over different jurisdictions, at the lowest cost possible means that the situation on the ground is fluid. A safe environment today can change tomorrow. All aviation environments are the target of crime - not only for the contents of your luggage, but because of the opportunity they present for illicit cross-border trade. The average passenger remains unaware of the potential impact this can have on them personally.

There is a common misconception with passengers that airlines that take luggage actually keep custody of it until it is delivered at the point of destination. Due to the realities of the modern aviation business, this is not the case. Checked luggage will, in all cases, pass through not only different facilities (and security authorities, if the flight is international) but also be handled by different staff contracted to handle baggage at each of those facilities. Aviation entities pay these service providers for this to occur and it will remain this way, as it is essential for maintaining the economy of flight costs. Security on the ground have a double edged challenge in this regard - first, to secure their own facilities from crime, and secondly, detect it when it occurs within these circumstances. As at present, each bag is sealed differently, or unsealed, and that means unless security staff can observe a crime in progress, they are unlikely to detect it within their facilities prior to the luggage leaving. Once it leaves for transport, they lose costody of the item completely and if tampering is discovered at the end of the journey, then there is little either security team can do (outbound or inbound) if they cannot verify when and where tampering occurred.

That is what we are about. Firstly, security for the passenger, and secondly, the tamper indicators needed to increase protection and reduce the timelag between an event occurring and its detection. In regards to the passenger, at minimum, it means knowledge that your bag has arrived with its contents intact and unchanged... Or not. Knowledge which I, as a frequent international flyer, consider critical before I would take custody of my luggage and go through immigration.

In the aviation sector, change is obviously reactionary - both airlines and airport authorities respond to the needs of passengers once they make their demands known. The more passengers that are aware of the risk, the better. So it is in our interest to provide as much information as we can, so the problem becomes transparent to all passengers.

I will keep this thread updated with our progress in the US. As you know, it is a unique market with the TSA's oversight. We are making sure we do things by the book because of this.

Kind regards,

Dion @ Securoseal.com