Slashdot Mirror
Identity Theft From Tossed Airline Boarding Pass?
crush writes "The Guardian newspaper has a great story about how the gathering of information for 'anti-terrorist' passenger screening databases allowed a reporter and security guru Adam Laurie to lay the groundwork for stealing the identity of a business traveller by using his discarded boarding-pass stub." From the article: "We logged on to the BA website, bought a ticket in Broer's name and then, using the frequent flyer number on his boarding pass stub, without typing in a password, were given full access to all his personal details - including his passport number, the date it expired, his nationality (he is Dutch, living in the UK) and his date of birth. The system even allowed us to change the information."
Ever since 9/11, I refuse to travel by air. Not because of the scary terrorists, but because of my scary government. While the article talks about a UK program with bad security, the author is clear that this is all because of pressure from the United States.
I sent an email to the TSA a while ago telling them that I despise their spying programs and I am boycotting the airline industry. I don't want to be treated like a second-class citizen, spyed on, and my rights violated. Sure, the majority of airline passengers don't have a problem, but there are a significant quantity that do hit security snags on a daily basis. What has this increased illusion of security bought us? Pork. We haven't caught terrorists because of spending on ineffective security programs. Each alleged terrorist since 9/11 was caught because of people. People who thought something was wrong -- the shoe bomber who had trouble with his bomb, and passengers and flight attendants handled the situation. Not computers, not databases. People.
As far as I'm concerned, the airline industry can rot in hell for giving in to government pressure. They know these security programs do nothing more than waste money on pork and make certain politicians feel smug, earning brownie points with their constituents. Until the government gets a clue, I will not fly. If the airlines suffer, so be it. Money is what drives this country. Maybe when the government realizes that the airlines aren't making money, someone, somewhere, will get a clue and start implementing good security that does not violate our privacy.
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
I doubt "Mrs." Broer will ever throw away her airplane ticket stub again!
My work here is dung.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
I even shred my scratch pad, sticky notes and code written on napkins.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Shredder? I really don't know if this is common knowledge/thought/attitude, but keep everything with your name and and identifying number on it until you have access to a shredder.
Shred anything with more then one piece of identifying information on it. Examples: Name and address (junk mail), Name andSSN (should know this by now), Name and phone# (yeah, it's in phone book, but don't let it float around). There are tons of combinations. I'd go so far as to shred directions from and to a destination, or even ATM receipts.
You'd be suprised how much seemingly worthless information can be compiled to gain terrific insight into people.
At the expense of sounding paranoid, I even shred my baggage check tickets (Name+flight#+someID#).
The important thing is that you will not be allowed on an international flight without showing a valid passport. BA boarding procedures mandate a check of the passport against the ticket at the gate. This is kind of necessary now that outbound passengers from the UK are very rarely checked by immigration. True, an airline is unlikely to even have a UV light let alone a scanner there so it may be possible to get through with a forged passport.
See my journal, I write things there
Yesterday I was stopped by a cop in the Concord, MA national park because the muffler on my old vw bus was a bit loud. I handed him my Vermont driver's license, which is a bit of paper with no SSN, only a coded address and no photo. His response- "What's this". "My driver's license" I replied. "Well how do they hope to stop terrorists with this?"
Being an opponent of the current craze for every more comprehensive and intrusive IDs and ID checks here in the US, I hope some proponents of the Real ID act will pay heed to unintended consequences of this absurdity.
On 2004 I travelled a lot to USA.
This don't seem to be much, but I was "selected" for manual scanning of my handbag in almost every USA airport.
Common sense and good diplomatics told me to accept that and never question authorities when you are a foreign citizen, but on the last scan, at MIA airport, though I created the guts to ask the nice TSA security agent why I was being scanned over and over. The answer shocked me: "It is all that electronics you carry. Makes very difficult to see what you have". I always carried my cellphone, myPDA, my digital camera and my CD player with me, on the same bag, and it really looked a mess.
The funny thing: I felt safer, because they were really looking at the x-ray. The only time I got stopped by airport security where I live, was because I told the guys my cellphone never made those portals beep... THAT DAY, it beeped!!!
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong."
H. L. Mencken
the author is clear that this is all because of pressure from the United States.
I am a Norwegian, and I am saddened by the new religion that has Europe in it's grips. There are various sects in this religion, but they all have one thing in common, the big "Satan" is the US of effing A. Anything bad that goes on in the world is the fault of the US. This article, and the response to it, is an example of how fanatics suffering from this religion think.
The system they hacked was the BA frequent flyer system. This system has nothing to do with passenger security or US national security. This is a convenience system made so that BA passengers easily can buy tickets, earn miles, buy upgrades etc. This system shouldn't have information such as the passport number. The fact that it does is an internal matter for BA and has absolutely nothing to do with the USA.
I travel a lot for business and I am a member of most of the frequent flyer systems in Europe and the US, but not BA since I am already a member of one of their co-shares. None of the airlines have my passport number stored on the frequent flyer site. Not one of them.
This is an internal BA problem, BA should never have had the passport number stored on the FF site, they should never allow this to be accessed without a password etc.
Blaming the US for this is ridiculous in the extreme. The US has nothing to do with how an airline designs its Frequent Flyer website, and no, the US does not require that your passport number of other personal information is stored on the FF site or anywhere else for that matter. They only require the information be sent before you board the plane.
Sadly, the new European religion requires full frontal lobotomy prior to joining, something that has not reduced the number of Europeans who sign on.
Okay, I'll bite.
From TFA, the guy is a business traveller. Now look what happens if you "need help" logging in to BA's website:
As a member of the British Airways Executive Club, On Business or as a registered customer with britishairways.com, you can now log in to manage your account and access our exclusive online services. You log in by entering your details in the boxes at the top right hand corner of the screen.
Login ID Your login ID is either your: > Executive Club membership number or > On Business membership number or > Username
PIN/Password When logging in with the following: > Executive Club membership number, use your 4-digit PIN or > On Business use your login id and password or > username, use your password
Executive Club members If you need a PIN or have forgotten your PIN, then please click here to apply for one >>
On Business members If you have forgotten your password or login id click here for more information >>
Forgotten your password? Enter your username in both the Login ID and the PIN/Password boxes to receive your password prompt.
From what I can tell, if the reporter is in fact not lying, if the "victim" was an Executive Club member, you need the following if you need a PIN, or have forgotten your PIN:
Hmm. This is printed on the boarding pass already. Oh, and if he's an On Business member, you only need the username to retrieve the password, and the website tells you that it's "2 characters 6 digits"; what's the chance of that being the membership number printed on the boarding pass?
I wouldn't call this complete and utter bullshit yet. There are reasonable explanations for how this was accomplished.