TSA Now Investigating Boarding Pass Hacker

An anonymous reader writes "A week after the Justice Department cleared him of any wrongdoing, Chris Soghoian, the Indiana University PhD student who created an online boarding pass generator for Northwest Airlines to highlight security holes is on the government's 'no-fly' list. The Transportation Security Administration has now launched its own investigation, says Wired blog 27strokeB. The TSA is claiming that Soghoian 'attempted to circumvent an established civil aviation security program established in the Transportation Security Regulations,' violations of which carry fines of up to $11,000 per violation. That could be a steep fine, says Washingtonpost.com's Security Fix blog: 'Something like 35,000 people viewed and possibly used the boarding pass generator during the less than 72 hours that it was live on his site in November. Soghoian told WaPo: "If they decide that the only safe way for me to leave the country is by boat, then that's pretty much the end of my career here in the States. It's one thing to harass researchers, but if they can chase them out of the country, then that's a real chilling effect."'"

Comments

Security Threat

[Archangel Michael]

This whole airline TSA thing is a crock of BS. Over Kill.

So, a bunch of terrorists captured a couple of airplanes and flew them into buildings. Yeah, a bunch of people died, which is tragic. And the Economy Burped, which is ... expected.

However, we've learned our lesson, and have secured the airplanes better. In addition, I doubt, HIGHLY DOUBT, that they could get anywhere close to doing the same thing, given the same circumstances, mainly because the passengers wouldn't stand for it.

Screening 80 year old grandmas of their knitting needles is stupid. Taking off shoes is stupid. Banning Liquids is stupid. For all the inconvenience of it all, it will not prevent someone from trying to by-pass whatever security is setup, and eventually they will succeed.

I know for a fact that I could bring a knife on board a plane even today, even passing through all the security. They can't stop me if they can't see it. And there are such knives available.

The point is, all this "security" isn't really designed to prevent hi-jackers, it is designed to placate the masses. See my sig for more info