Security breach at MCG raises questions about AI screening technology

In a world where sports stadiums are considered potential terrorist objectives, the IA security detection has been acclaimed as the future. In theory, it is a mutual benefit for places and customers.

The crowds are transmitted perfectly through electronic doors that detect potential weapons, which causes a touch on the shoulder for some people by waving the scan wands.

But on Thursday night, the potential dangers of this technology were in sight in the largest stadium in Australia.

Among the tens of thousands of Footy fans in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), two men allegedly wore weapons.

Charging…

They had supposedly brought firearms through the new security system promoted by the MCG AI, the first of its kind in the country.

Supposedly weapons were discovered only after the behavior of men caught the attention of the police, who registered them.

No one was injured in the incident, and the police have ruled out terrorism, but security violation has shocked the community in general.

Victorian Prime Minister Jacinta Allan asked for a security review.

The Executive President of Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), Stuart Fox, said the incident was “extremely disappointing and disturbing.”

The detection technology established in the MCG, called Evolver Express, has been criticized in the United States for failures to detect weapons in schools.

Fox said that the violation in the MCG was ultimately due to human error.

“Our security detection units identified elements of additional concern and research, our initial internal research identified an breakdown in the thoroughness of the secondary and manual detection process,” he said through a statement.

Neil Fergus, a former Asio agent whose security firm has worked on the main international events, including Olympic Games, said “it was not how it is supposed to work.”

“It is a very intelligent technology based on AI,” he said.

“The purpose of the system is to let everyone pass, with the exception of those who alert, then they are subject to secondary control and intervention.

“‘Excuse me, sir, apology, ma’am, I need to check your bag. I will execute this electronic hand wand on your person’, and we leave.”

But when things go wrong in places full of people like MCG, the consequences can be serious.

According to Asio, sports stadiums in the great days of events are among the favored objectives of the terrorists.

The Technology Company faces the Court

Evolve Express implies scanners without touch specifically to detect “hidden weapons”, according to the company of the company based in the United States.

He said that his “advanced sensor technology and artificial intelligence” collected a variety of weapons and that it was working in stadiums, schools and hospitals in the United States for several years.

Fergus said that “it was widely used in the United States, even for the Super Bowl, including the two large soccer stadiums in Los Angeles.”

“And I understand that the MCC went and looked at its operation before involving the supplier here to install and implement it,” he said.

It was first used during Taylor Swift’s concerts in the MCG in early 2024, when 300,000 fans were seen through the stadium doors.

But recent judicial cases in the United States have questioned the capacities of this technology.

The Federal United States Commerce Commission (FTC) demanded to evolve for the use of technology in schools, its demand alleges that the company made false claims about its security detection system with AI.

The case was established at the end of 2024, and Evol is not required to admit or deny any of the accusations.

However, as part of the settlement, the FTC prohibited statements with the ability of technology to detect weapons, to ignore the harmless personal elements and their weapons detection precision.

Judicial documents also say that Evol was not allowed to make statements about “any material aspect of their performance, efficiency, nature or central characteristics”, including the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence.

The regulator also gave some American schools that installed evolve the option to cancel their contract.

In response, the interim CEO of Evollo Technology, Mike Ellenbogen, said that the case related to previous marketing materials, and did not challenge the “fundamental effectiveness of our technology.”

“To be clear, this research was about the language of past marketing and not the ability of our system to add value to security operations,” he said at that time.

Evolve is also the issue of two collective action demands, with similar accusations transmitted on whether the company exaggerated the technology capabilities.

More concerns about effectiveness

Conor Healy, director of government research in the IPVM group based in the United States, said the company’s transparency about its technology was worrying.

He said that IPVM, which focuses on surveillance and security technologies, had been investigating the company since 2021.

He has discovered that Evolvo has allegedly exaggerated the ability of his machines to differentiate weapons from common metal items.

Part of the concern, as indicated in an IPVM report of 2022, is the rate of false positives for these machines.

Healy said he could vary from 5 to 60 percent, which varied according to the sensitivity configuration.

While he said that each detection system had false positives, a higher number could lead to security guards being complacent.

“When it goes out in all these elements that are not weapons, if an operator finally does not make a secondary projection of someone … can call that human error. But another term is the operator’s fatigue,” said Healy.

“A lot of false positives who are undertaking could lead to people not taking manual security controls as serious as they should be, and security guards may not have time to do it if they are dealing with a large crowd.”

Healy also said he knew about companies that reduced security personnel after installing technology, which could get worse.

In a 2020 media statement, it evolved hinted at the potential to reduce staff, saying that its customers “optimize the performance of their security equipment while reducing detection expenses from up to 70 percent.”

The MCC refused to say if he now had less security personnel.

While Healy said he didn’t know details about how MCG technology was established, he said Evol’s messages could lead to a “false security sensation.”

“What we have seen so often with Evolve is an attempt not to be communicative with the public about the level of security offered,” he said.

‘Way of the Future’

Fergus, the security expert, said that if the AI ​​detection system was giving so many false positives that security stopped paying attention, it was not being used correctly.

“It must be tested, regularly calibrated and have operators who know how it is supposed to work,” he said.

“The secondary exam should not be overwhelmed by false positives.

“If you calibrate correctly, there will be very few false positives.

“I have made 11 Olympic Games, four world cups of FIFA, six or seven games of the Commonwealth and this and this [AI screening] It is absolutely the path of the future. “

He said that the AI ​​system scan skills were basically the same as older metal detectors.

“The advantage is that it provides much faster yield, a higher footprint, with less intrusivity in terms of customers,” he said.

He said he improved in a serious stage exhibited by the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018.

“During the first two days, the ministers apologized to the public, the families were crying, one hour and mid -afternoon at the stadium to see the opening ceremony due to the projection,” Fergus said.

“It took time to fix it. And to be honest, one of the ways in which it was solved was that they began to take more people with a less rigorous secondary search, it is not good.”

For now, the Minister of Tourism, Sports and the main events of Victoria, Steve Dimopoulos, said that security measures would be strengthened in the MCG this weekend, and a review of the security configuration would be shared with other places throughout the state.

The MCC has refused to provide more comments, since the incident is now before the court.