Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

Since September 11, 2001, airport security control procedures have expanded in the face of the increased threat of terrorist attacks on aircrafts and airports. Obligatory and meticulous checks are carried out on all passengers although the overwhelming majority of passengers do not pose any risk. Current airport control procedures are expensive and inefficient; they extend the time spent by passengers at the airport and contribute to increased crowding; they inhibit the development of interconnected transport systems and significantly reduce the comfort of passengers who pose no threat. As the security needs of air transport morph, security experts are considering replacing the existing across-the-board procedures with personalized and more selective control processes based on data and behavioral analysis to reduce the duration of airport check-in procedures and improve the effectiveness of security controls. Such solutions have been successfully tested over the past decades at Israeli airports and check-in terminals by the Israeli state carrier El Al, which has the reputation of being the best-protected airline in the world. The FLYSEC system, developed and tested in 2015-2018 at Luxembourg Airport in cooperation with the local university, operates on similar principles although its implementation is less invasive. Modern computer tools for analyzing travel history data and data from current bookings as well as algorithmic methods of behavioral analysis based on advanced detection, identification, crowdsourcing and tracking systems all feed into such smart, selective and personalized security controls. Smart, selective control systems are based on the basic assumption that passengers can be accurately and effectively sorted into different risk groups (e.g. low-risk/trusted passengers, normal passengers, high-risk passengers), long before they arrive at the airport and create a real threat. There are many effective techniques for profiling and identifying perpetrators already used in criminology, criminalistics and computer forensics that are also suitable for use in smart security systems to better meet the current and future needs of civil air transport. The article presents the idea and general characteristics of smart, selective and personalized security control systems, followed by structuring of the analytical field and problem analysis in terms of their implementation conditions, opportunities, threats, conflict-forming potentials and controversies, as well as the needs for more detailed research and their suggested directions.