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TSA Tests Automated ID Authentication
CowboyRobot writes "Last year, a Nigerian man boarded a plane from N.Y. to L.A. using an invalid ID and a boarding pass issued to another person. A week later he was caught again with 10 expired boarding passes. In response to this and similar events, the Transportation Security Administration has begun testing a new system at Washington's Dulles International Airport that verifies an air traveler's identity by matching photo IDs to boarding passes and ensures that boarding passes are authentic. The test will soon be expanded to Houston and Puerto Rico."
sign of sensibility from TSA... the world will end in 2012
One person did this, and it seems he was caught both times. Wouldn't that mean that the original practices were working? I guess any way to strip our rights and waste money is a good one. Did all of you know there is a clause allowing airports to opt out and use private security firms?? San Francisco, crazy isn't it, is one of the few airports that has used the option; and guess what, the passengers applaud the effort and can't believe how friendly and quick they are.
So it's taken the TSA over 10 years after 9/11 to attempt to close this loophole? Good work guys!
There have been stories of people being denied ability to fly because their ticket didn't EXACTLY match their ID. I'm sure this will result in more of the same.
(note to Westerners: in many many parts of the world, people have names with no exact relationship to how it is put on official documents... some people also have two birthdays (one is based on the moon, one is based on the calendar))
Strict unbending rules are the bane of society.
I took four flights over the last week. Monday I left SEA and I did not notice anything new. Friday I flew out of SEA again and the security guard took my boarding pass, scanned it, my name came up on the readout, he then did the usual comparisons against my ID and let me through. I gestured at the scanner and said, "That is not a trick I have seen before," there was glint in his eye and a small smile but no audible reply.
If you are still traveling on other peoples return flights (when the buy a round trip), it is time to stop!
I will not mourn that which I never had to lose. - Unknown
I recent inherited $30 million dollars US that I must hide from local tax collector. If you would kindly allow me to fly for free, I will deposit the sum of $2 million dollars in you account. Pleese allow my assistant to board your flight.
Thanks you,
Mujibar Undooku
Prime Minister of Financial Affairs, Nigeria
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
You know, they could just *enforce the existing rules* instead of implementing new ones. Note the boarding was with an "invalid ID".
And boxcutters were not allowed in carryon luggage planes on September 10th, 2001, either.
AC
Weren't those called eyeballs on the first TSA person you run into? They wave the magic UV wand over your ID to make sure it's valid, then study the boarding pass, then the ID again, then look at you, scribble something on it, and then tell you to have a nice day.
Apparently you can and will get groped or cavity-searched for no reason, or denied clearance because your baby is on the no-fly list, but they do let you fly with a fake ID and invalid boarding pass. That's very sensible.
First, we all have to show picture ID and cryptically marked boarding passes
Next, we have to partially disrobe and empty our pockets
Then, we have to pass through a metal detector and a high-cost, dubiously useful (and even more dubiously safe) perv-scanner
You mean to tell me that TSA hasn't figured out, in cooperation with the airlines, of course, how to put some kind of cryptologic authenticator on boarding passes?
Perhaps they should have used some of the money they spent on perv-scanners to buy a computer, a bar code scanner and a crypto-hash generator for the boarding passes -- like they have at the gate when you board the airplane. They could scan the new high tech RealID[tm] licenses they forced on us, too, because you know they put an authenticator hash in them (right?)
Bruce Schneier hit it on the nose (and now, former TSA head Kip Hawley seems to agree: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577335783535660546.html) -- TSA is broken.
There doesn't seem to be any valid security reason to show ID at all before flying, much less proving that your ID and boarding pass match, any more than there is when you take a bus, ferry, subway, or train.
If TSA (or whoever would be there if we abolished this waste of an organization) is doing its job, explosives should be stopped using existing technology (x-rays, random chemical swabs, not to mention, you know, looking for nervous behavior or the wrong answers to a few basic security questions which has always worked for El-Al), and any other weapons are limited in their usefulness now that cockpit doors are secured and passengers know that "shut up and behave" no longer results in a safe landing in Cuba.
ID, matching or otherwise, doesn't matter. Most (all?) of the 9/11 hijackers had valid ID. The No-Fly list is a bloated joke. The only thing ID does is ensure that the airlines control the tickets more carefully.
Made-up crisis averted by more expensive technology that lines the pockets of some lobbyist. Woot!
They waste a fortune on scanners that can't see a gun if you strap it to your side then they screw up on the basics. It's like laws, they insist they need new laws when they don't enforce the existing ones. They need to actually enforce the existing rules before they add more bureaucracy that simply adds more holes to exploit.
Without an organisation like the TSA the rest of the world is practicing that for decades. Your name is checked against an ID when checking in. Before entering the departure area your ID is checked again against the boarding pass and your face, takes split seconds only. When going international that happens again at immigration and finally when you try to board the boarding pass is checked against the loading list and your ID. Nothing causes any queues.
Kind of strange that this practice seems to be new in the US.
I don't get why it matters who I am. As long as I am not carrying anything that is dangerous to the plane and its passengers, what difference does it make?
I've gotten through security at chicago o'hara airport using a boarding pass for my connecting flight that didnt say chicago anywhere on it. I didnt notice till i was through security.
mind's eye conjured up the scene in Family Guy:
"Penis recognition validated. Welcome, Mr. President."
"Hey, Quagmire, how'd you know that would work?"
"I didn't. I jut shoved it in and broke it."
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I used to work in the airline industry as Check in developper and let me tell you this : the only reason there is boarding pass is because after they check you in, you are not at the gate but far away. So it is only an itnermediate doc given to the pax to be identified at the gate before being allowed to board. A Fake boarding pass will *ONLY* allow you to go from the check in and to the gate. That's it. It will not under any circumstance allow anybody to board a plane. All BP system I know of check the BN number against the name on the PNL (Pax name list) and BP have either the RFC (17 something) 2D bar code, single 1D bar code or a magnetic stripe to contain more info than a mere number. And those info are checked against the PNL while the machine register you board the plane. Sure I don't know them all, and there could be crappy one not checking anything in the US but I doubt it. It is really a basic check. So in essence a fake BP will only allow you to go the gates, and that's it.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
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