Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF

[danbrotherston]

I'm very much confused as to what you think "could happen" that the bus operator wouldn't notice. I think they'd notice if someone boarded the bus, and that's really the security risk they are concerned about.

Real security is not done by requiring those pushing for security measures to prove existence of a scenario which defeats the alternative.

That being said, it’s not hard to come up with a scenario: the bus driver could be compromised. Now of course anybody anywhere could be compromised, but having a person drive an entire bus into and out of the secure area with little supervision (drivers normally work alone) is obviously imprudent.

Just have the bus pull up to a platform from which the passengers can easily reach the security checkpoint. Inconvenient if somebody is going plane → bus → plane but otherwise it’s just doing the same things in a different order.

Or not. It’s mostly security theatre anyway, so it really doesn’t matter what security practices are applied to the buses.

If you want to see real security, check out a bank branch. It just looks like a nice office like any that deals with paperwork and forms and the public. But try robbing it (not legal advice, don’t actually try this); good luck getting away with more than a couple of thousand dollars. You’d have to pull a heist every week indefinitely to maintain even a middle-class lifestyle.

I'm not sure how a bus driver getting compromised is any bigger a risk than any other link in the chain getting compromised...for example, the security guard at the vehicle checkpoint could be compromised, or, literally any other driver who passes through the security checkpoint, or someone in the airport...

And there are also multiple links in the security chain here...lets say the bus driver is paid off to stop and pickup someone who hasn't gone through security...they still need a valid boarding pass to get on the plane, and they won't have that if they haven't gone through security.

As for banks...I worked for one...their physical security is decent, but all they are doing is following best practices...limited cash on hand, time locks on safes, etc. None of this is new. In fact, things which ARE new...they're actually quite bad at...their IT security is not great...and the reason for this is conservatism. At the very top of every investment statement it says "past performance is not a guarantee of future results" but in every single conversation I had high up people at the bank, the prevailing opinion was "what we did yesterday worked, changing it is therefore a grave risk".

The main reason bank heists are uncommon is it isn't actually that good a value. Policing treats it very seriously (something something, police, something something protecting capital), so you're going to have a high chance of facing consequences, but your payout is low, because physically (or even technologically) compromising a single persons account or even a single branch isn't going to net you all that much cash.

As for airport security, just because the things we see as passengers are basically theater, doesn't mean there isn't actual security in place. Like I said, employees deal with background checks, and even passengers do get some security checks. And if someone really felt that having a driver operate unsupervised is a problem, there is no rule that says you cannot have more than one employee on the bus...and in fact given that this is a "luxury coach" operated by an airline...I wouldn't even be surprised if there was a "flight attendant" on board.