Scanners Hit By Low Voltage

[Mid]

Scanners hit by low voltage

Sat, June 23, 2007 : Last updated 0:34 am (Thai local time)

Ten CTX luggage scanners at Suvarnabhumi Airport were severely damaged by insufficient voltage supply and not a computer virus as previously reported, a National Legislative Assembly (NLA) investigating committee said yesterday.

Admiral Bannawit Ken-grian, head of the NLA committee for transport and adviser to the Airports of Thailand (AOT) chairman, said six of the broken scanners had damaged X-ray radiators. Replacements would be imported with permission from the Nuclear Science and Technology Knowledge Centre.

"We don't know yet when these six machines will be fixed," he said, adding that the other four machines were slightly damaged but still required spare parts.

Bannawit dismissed previous reports that the breakdown was caused by officials inserting other programs into the computer running the scanners.

The Nation

[Crushdepth]

Whatever, it is still lame.

[sibeymai]

Like when I donated some computers to the local school in the wife's village upcountry. In 2 days none of them were working any more. Teachers who thought they knew what they were doing were to blame, not the kids.

[PhilHarries]

Any sensitive equipment in any facility anywhere in the world should be protected by a UPS (Uniterruptable Power Supply) to protect it agaist voltage fluctuations. This is standard operating practice worldwide but, hey this is Thailand AND Suvarnabhumi, the UPS was probably in the design and money for the UPS was probably paid but not for the UPS.

[Mid]

Airport bomb detection crippled

By Amornrat Mahithirook

Chaowalit Paka-ariya, AoT vice-president for the Baggage Handling System Department, yesterday clarified the problem with CTX scanners before the National Legislative Assembly's committee on transportation led by Bannawit Kengrian.

Mr Chaowalit told the panel that the breakdown was caused by a computer virus which prompted four servers to crash.

Two servers have been cleaned while the other two are in the process of being cleansed of a virus, he said.

He said GE InVision technicians would look at how the virus managed to infect the servers.

"The CTX system is a closed system. Installation of any irrelevant programme is not allowed. There is no Windows operating system or audio-visual entertainment programme attached to the system.

"We have to investigate if there is a security violation," he said.

The Post Publishing Public Co

[A_Traveller]

The CTX 9000 series {sounds like 2001} is an integrated scanner, 1 meter wide conveyor, with x-ray source, internal RF link, and its own air conditioning system. The software is designed to automatically match suspect profiles and warn the operators, usually in another location, {using network protocols} of any such alarms. It beggars believe that the installation here has no managed power supply.

Regards

GE Image of CTX control room