Airport Security - How Much Is Too Much?

The BBC reports that an Irish man was arrested last weekend due to carrying explosives into Dublin. The catch? The explosives were planted on him, unknowingly, by authorities from another airport looking to test security. He was released once the remote authorities contacted Dublin police.

The unsuspecting victim was one of eight; the other seven were detected at the airport. While authorities are looking into what went wrong, allowing the explosives to make it undetected all the way to Dublin from Slovakia, airports around the world are stepping up their security yet again, in response to incidents like this one, and the attempted bombing of a plane over the Christmas holidays.

Companies such as L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc.(NYSE: LLL) and Rapiscan Systems (A subsidiary of OSI Systems Inc (NASDAQ: OSIS)) are pushing to have more of their full body imaging scanners being placed in airports, though there is some debate over their effectiveness, not to mention concerns over privacy.

Meanwhile, expect airport congestion to just get worse.