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Security Technology

The Hi-Tech Security at the Super Bowl 265

Hugh Pickens writes "As millions of fans sit glued to their sets next Sunday, one part of the game they will not see is the massive deployment of federal and local law enforcement resources to achieve what is being called the most technologically secure Super Bowl in history, an event that has been officially designated as a National Security Special Event (PDF). At the top of the list are gamma-ray cargo and vehicles scanners that can reportedly see through six inches of steel to reveal the contents of large vehicles. 'We can detect people, handguns and rifles,' says Customs and Border Protection Officer Brian Bell. 'You'd be a fool to bring something into that stadium that you shouldn't. We're going to catch it. Our goal is to look at every vehicle that makes a delivery inside the stadium and inside the secure perimeter.' Next is the 51-foot Featherlite mobile command center for disaster response that will support the newly constructed $18 million Regional Operations Center (ROC) for the Marion County Department of Homeland Security that will serve as a fusion center for coordinating the various federal agencies involved in providing security for the Super Bowl. One interesting security measure are the 'Swiveloc' explosion-proof manhole covers (video) that Indianapolis has spent $150,000 installing that are locked down during the Super Bowl. In case of an underground explosion, the covers lift a couple of inches off the ground — enough to vent gas out without feeding in oxygen to make an explosion bigger — before falling back into place. Finally the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI has installed a network of cameras that will be just a click away for government officials. 'If you had the right (Internet) address, you could set up a laptop anywhere and you could watch the camera from there,' says Brigadier General Stewart Goodwin."
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The Hi-Tech Security at the Super Bowl

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  • Fear (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:33PM (#38898159)

    You know the terrorists have won when...

    • Re:Fear (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jo42 ( 227475 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @08:45PM (#38898707) Homepage

      The terrorists won when America stopped being "the land of the free and the home of the brave" and became a bunch of fearful, fat, money grubbing, bible humping, limp-wristed namby pambies.

    • Re:Fear (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FridayBob ( 619244 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @08:53PM (#38898781)

      You know the terrorists have won when...

      Also:

      You know the establishment is winning when they've succeeded in using the fear of terrorism as an excuse to create the foundations of a police state...

  • Meanwhile... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by omganton ( 2554342 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:34PM (#38898167)
    ...budget cuts to space exploration. Good thing Football is safe.
    • by 1729 ( 581437 )

      ...budget cuts to space exploration. Good thing Football is safe.

      It's not just ensuring that "Football is safe." The Super Bowl will have on the order of 100k people in and around the stadium and more than 100 million people watching. We can argue about whether the specific measures will be effective, or whether they invade privacy, or whatever, but don't dismiss a high-value terrorism target as just a football game.

      • Re:Meanwhile... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportland@yaFREEBSDhoo.com minus bsd> on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:55PM (#38898373) Homepage Journal

        If the NFL feels its a target, then the fucking NFL can pay the bill.

        • Re:Meanwhile... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by artor3 ( 1344997 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @08:15PM (#38898483)

          It's the government's job to protect its citizens. Even the most hardcore libertarians usually will at least concede that much. The Super Bowl is an obvious target for anyone who wants to kill a bunch of people to make some deluded point. If we follow your approach, then what does the government do?

          Besides, I feel much safer being looked after by the government (whose top concern is reelection) than a private, for-profit organization (whose top concern is saving money).

          • by pla ( 258480 )
            The Super Bowl is an obvious target for anyone who wants to kill a bunch of people to make some deluded point.

            The government response to any other private "too big to secure" event consists of "okay then, if you can't secure it, you can't hold the event". So, following your (entirely true) statement, the government should simply ban the superbowl.


            If we follow your approach, then what does the government do?

            Roads. Schools. Water. National defense (stress both the "national" and the "defense" par
            • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

              by artor3 ( 1344997 )

              So, if Al Qaeda attacks on superbowl Sunday, you can bet your eyeteeth they'll go for Six Flags Texas, or the Mall of America, or the Golden Gate bridge. Something totally unexpected, rather than walking into a highly visible trap.

              Only because IT IS a highly visible trap. Security by intimidation of potential attackers only works if you actually do intimidate the potential attackers.

              And, FYI, you do not look out for yourself. You can't. No one can. No one is always alert, all the time, for any emergency. We rely on each other to look out for us when we let our guard down (which is all the time). That's the great thing about society. I wish the anarchists could understand that, but they're all convinced that they are supermen.

          • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

            by Alien Being ( 18488 )

            It's not the government's responsibility to protect a bunch of rich football dickheads in a private stadium. If the ticketholders can afford to spend $500/seat then they can afford to chip in to buy their own security.

            I'd love to see an MIT-type hack like this one just to embarrass Deputy Fife.

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLg2XpY0L3w [youtube.com]

          • I think the governments job is to provide for the common defense, not to protect me from anything, including myself. I don't feel safe being looked after by anyone but me, and surely don't trust the government or a corporation to do that. If I go to a mass gathering of people, then I accept the risk that I may die because some asshat thinks it will make a good target, I am sad that the populous feels they need to be protected. But hell, I believe in freedom, and it ain't free. Sometimes you have to be b

      • Anybody who believes that they may be making themselves a target for terrorists by going, and still goes so they don't miss their precious football game, is destined to die in adherence to Darwinian law.
  • by supersat ( 639745 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:37PM (#38898193)

    'If you had the right (Internet) address, you could set up a laptop anywhere and you could watch the camera from there,' says Brigadier General Stewart Goodwin."

    CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

    Who sets this kind of thing up without any authentication?!

    • by Swanktastic ( 109747 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:45PM (#38898285)

      Brigadier General Stewart "Bareback" Goodwin

    • by WarJolt ( 990309 )

      If you can't watch them, then bring your microwave ovens and knock out their WiFi. FBI won't be able to watch either.

      I wonder if those gamma-ray scanners are going to be looking for microwave ovens.

      • Yes indeed. There are a zillion ways you could defeat security. I remember back when 9/11/2001 happened. I was working for the Rhode Island Department of Attorney General at the time. We got all sorts of documentation on how you could hide weaponry on things that even TSA wouldn't scan for and that would get through scans without issue.

        And to disrupt you really don't need a microwave system. Just load up Backtrack and go for broke. It's a pretty sure bet they'll use WEP!
    • by mbstone ( 457308 )

      If you work for the Homeland Security, do you get access to the All-22 Shot [wsj.com]?

  • They have just created a challenge in regards to just that Internet address is...

    • by Phrogman ( 80473 )

      And then when a thousand /. geeks go looking for the hidden "internet address" and find it - the Government can say "Look we have 1000 internet terrorists attacking us, we need to have better control over the internet!." :(

  • by sehlat ( 180760 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:42PM (#38898249)

    Or they'll cancel the 'ole bleedin' lot!

  • Fuck all this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:44PM (#38898267)

    Make the NFL foot this whole security bill.

  • by mrmeval ( 662166 ) <jcmeval.yahoo@com> on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:45PM (#38898287) Journal

    They were because they KEEP EXPLODING!!!

    http://www.theindychannel.com/news/29819089/detail.html [theindychannel.com]

  • by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportland@yaFREEBSDhoo.com minus bsd> on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:52PM (#38898351) Homepage Journal

    we won't have those constant superbowl terrorist attacks!

  • Meanwhile (Score:4, Funny)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:58PM (#38898395) Homepage Journal

    Someone mixes tiny nitroglycerin tablets with breadcrumbs and the Super Bowl is canceled due to pigeon poop.

  • by Beerdood ( 1451859 ) on Wednesday February 01, 2012 @07:58PM (#38898401)
    "Oh boy!" thought Milton, "A article on football! And not the soccer version, the American football kind!" He could barely contain his troll-citement. He never fully recovered from the traumatizing memories of high school where the sports jocks viciously bullied him, and this was a perfect opportunity to remind the world how stupid the concept of this sport was! He put his fingers together, pondering on what kind of "insightful" comment would get modded up by his fellow neck-beards. A reference to hand-egg and the stupidity of the name? Nah.. been done before.. Perhaps a comment on the overall barbaric nature of the sport and a jab to all the rednecks and jocks that enjoy it? Better.. but maybe...

    "Wait a minute..." he thought. "Maybe I should be contributing to the contents of the article? Perhaps I should mention how government funds shouldn't be involved here, but they'll be there anyway due to close ties between football and the military. Maybe something on security theater and a reference to airports and perhaps a lack of any terrorist related activities in football games?" But the thought quickly left his mind, as there was too much bitterness towards those jock types he worked with in marketing (and couldn't stand) and instead posted "HURRR maybe they should up the radiation on the metal detectors so the in-breed hicks that attend the game get sterilized!!"
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      4/10, condescending without being offensive. Briefly going over your comment history, I suggest you stop trying to be funny. Humor is not one of your strengths.

      Though I must commend you for being able to sum up Slashdot in entirety with just one post.
  • Yea but then the adversaries are the most technologically capable in history as well.
    Scanners that can look through 6" of steel you say ?
    Does everybody have to take their shoes off as well ?
    Such statements tickle the fancy of hackers that have no negative motives but love a challenge.

    Then again ... getting on that wonder list for the sake of a prank might hamper their next flight to comic con.
  • You'd be a fool to bring something into that stadium that you shouldn't. We're going to catch it.

    So much for bringing your own booze or food in. The stadium concession business is safe!

  • All I have to say to the Feds is: good luck with that.

    Indiana is a "shall issue" concealed carry state. Indianapolis has an exception to concealed carry in city parks, but the stadium is not a city park.

    What that means is: the Feds have no authority to prevent someone from taking a legally-carried concealed handgun into the stadium.

    It may be against the stadium rules. That I don't know. But it isn't against the law.
    • It may be against the stadium rules. That I don't know. But it isn't against the law.

      Both the NFL and CIB, who manages Lucas Oil Stadium, have banned firearms from the stadium. It is one of the terms you agree to when you purchase a ticket. Bring a firearm with you and you will be turned away at the outer gate.

  • >At the top of the list are gamma-ray cargo and vehicles scanners that can reportedly see through six inches of steel to reveal the contents of large vehicles.

    Just wait until they use this on a vehicle that still has a human being still inside it when they turn on their death/maim ray.

    They really want to open themselves up to that kind of liability?

    --
    BMO

  • NFL, please just go away.

    Sincerely,

    Indianapolis resident that works downtown.

    just fucking go away please

  • A hundred comments and no one has mentioned the Goodyear blimp [wikipedia.org] yet? Sad...
  • And we're all sitting here thinking, "A couple of engineers could figure out how to get around it in a matter of a few hours."

    When do we get our government back?

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