nbc s tom costello joining us now. tom, is this profiling? how does it work, and how long has it been going on? tsa stresses this is not racial or ethnic profiling. simply looking at individuals who have had this travel history that may in and of itself raise a red flag but then coupled with other data points, other pieces of information warrant at least a closer look. the program itself has been around since 2010, but the federal air marshals have really kind of reoriented part of their daily assignment to start doing this. that started within the past year or so. i would make also this point. a lot of security pros say this is exactly what you would expect air marshals to do. if they are aware that somebody could be a potential risk, maybe they re not on a terror watchlist but you d like to keep an eye on them, wouldn t it make sense to have a federal air marshal do exactly that? and the surveillance would last
Confirmed that the documents posted by wikileaks include authentic material about cia hacking methods for phones, computers and tvs and wikileaks claims it has a larger collection of unreleased data. in a statement to nbc news, they said, quote, we have no comment of the authenticity of the document leaked. tom costello has more on how vulnerable american s electronic devices are. reporter: security pros say, the cia s alleged hacking blueprints should serve as a reality check for all-americans. the only secure device would be one that, you know, is turned off, stepped on, melted down, buried and then maybe it s secure. i ve got him. he s right here on the street. reporter: cyber security pro james line has already demonstrated how easily he could hack into my phone. watch me through the cam la lens and listen through the microphone. could i get a small
Workers in this country, the people who are running the baggage belts or who are loading with the catering onto planes, et cetera, the people working in the restaurants, they are not required to go through a security checkpoint every day and not necessarily required to have their bags checked every day. and that is a concern that many security pros have expressed to us about if you have an insider who is radicalized by an isis-type organization, the fact that they are not checking everybody remains a top priority and a top concern. nbc s tom costello reporting from union station. thank you so much. still ahead for everybody, more coming up on the busiest travel day of the year. the heightened state of security at airports across the u.s. this is just the reality of the days that we re living in, folks. this is not the drive-up theater. some people are tweeting me about this and driving up heater, but no, this is what is going on in this country. a short time ago president obama wan
Occasionally, there s not a successful terrorist attack against a u.s. domestic flight since 9/11. a record the tsa is proud of and makes consul tantds nervous, kate. a lot of that makes all of us nervous. who what do they talk about when you talk to authorities to try to change some of the negatives? yeah. so one of the one thing the security pros like to see happen is more random tsa and police checks and screenings throughout the airport. in other words, behind the scenes. for the police, s.w.a.t. team units in miami, for example, to go up to airport workers saying can i see your badge, please? run a background check on them right there and behind the scenes and check the baggage handlers, what are they up to? all of that, the more random it is and the more to put some of those people through the security checkpoints, the better. by the way, only miami and orlando require that every airport worker every single day is screened through that security check point. wow.
A half billion, and the average person spends 27 hours on facebook each month. the problem, keeping it in a world where hackers have targeted some very high profile brand names. for the people who work at facebook, october is a sort of test to security team sets up simulated attacks, then gauges how employees react and learn from the hack. this is the hack. they call it hackt o rks ber, a focus on traps by fake news stories, e-mails, or web links and stopping an attack before it starts. but what should the rest of us be watching for? security pros say if a message from a friend or something on his or her wall looks suspicious, flag it. sometimes, something seems out of the ordinary, it probably is. and so, it s a great thing to sit there and think, you know, so and say wouldn t say that, and that s something that s