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TSA Tests Automated ID Authentication

Posted by timothy on from the thanks-bruce dept.

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."

8 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. What a waste! by skipkent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:What a waste! by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 5, Interesting

      it is one of the very few things the TSA has done or is doing that makes sense

      Why should you need to present ID to fly? I'm 45 - I remember flying in the 80s to a student conference using the ticket of a buddy who couldn't go. (I also had a TRS-80 Model 1 in my checked luggage, but that's a different tale...)

    2. Re:What a waste! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "The TSA aren't needed at all. This is just a case of making sure those who get on the plane have paid."

      Yep, can't have cheap bastards flying into our buildings.

  2. Dear Mr. TSA: by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!
  3. Waitaminute... by Enry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. WTF, TSA? by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. ID is irrelevant by island_earth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!

  6. Re:Why does it matter? by wrook · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ah, you see, they can't really verify that you aren't carrying anything dangerous. So, instead, they try to keep people with a long history of suicide bombings off the plane. I mean, if they've blown themselves up on 4 of their last 5 trips, there's a good chance that they will do it again.

    It's not so hard to understand. You just have to start thinking like the TSA.