Security-related questions

[Ignazio Palmisano]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Ignazio Palmisano wrote:
> 
>> Bill Parr wrote:
>>> I travel internationally quite frequently - boarding at least 4
>>> international flights per month in a variety of countries, most months
>>> more - and haven't had to even open my laptop in at least 5 years. 5
>>> years or more ago I was often ask to just open my computer - to in effect
>>> demonstrate that either the boot screen came up, or (if I had put it to
>>> sleep) that it was capable of being started.
>>>  
>> Well my laptop has been sniffed twice with some strange tool that I
>> guess was meant to analyze particles in case I packed a bomb in my hard
>> drive... this happened in a UK airport, and I guess the reason the
>> machine was treated so was that in one case I was carrying two laptops
> 
> This surprises me.  While I haven't travelled with a laptop for years, when
> I did I _never_ passed through a Canadian airport without having to open,
> and turn on, my laptop and after 9/11 they also swabbed it to check for
> explosives.  These weren't random checks - every computer was checked.

I've travelled a lot with a laptop around Europe (Spain, France, UK, 
Germany, Austria and Italy), yet special treatments for laptops only on 
three occasions, and it was not done to everybody travelling with a pc. 
I guess that means Canada is more worried than Europe about attacks on 
its planes, or the security is implemented better in Canada :)
I.