Web Site Automates Fake Boarding Passes

[Rome]

Web Site Automates Fake Boarding Passes

By JOSHUA FREED, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 27, 7:17 PM ET

MINNEAPOLIS - A computer security student says terrorists would have no trouble getting around the government's no-fly list, and to prove it he set up a Web site that prints fake boarding passes.
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The passenger name on the fake boarding pass is "Bin Laden/Osama," although travelers can put in their own name — or a fake one — and change the flight information, too.

Christopher Soghoian, a 24-year-old doctoral student at Indiana University, said he set up the site to prove that the Transportation Security Administration isn't taking airline security seriously.

Others have pointed out before that savvy computer users could modify an airline Web page to print fake boarding passes, but Soghoian took it a step further and automated it.

"Before, any 12-year-old could have done it," Soghoian said on Friday. "Now any 30- or 40-year-old could do it as well."

Soghoian said terrorists on the no-fly list could use a fake boarding pass to avoid the no-fly list because IDs are only checked when the passenger passes through
TSA screening. So someone could use a fake boarding pass with an ID that matches and get through the screening.

They'd then need a real boarding pass — presumably bought under a fake name — to get on the plane.

There also have been reports of travelers flying without an ID at all. That "essentially means the no-fly list does not work," Soghoian said.

TSA spokesman Christopher White said other security measures are in place, including metal detectors, even if someone boards under a fake name. He condemned the Web site.

"The Web site really has the potential to promote illegal activity," he said. "Showing fraudulent documents to get through security is against the law."

Soghoian said he built his Web site to mimic Northwest Airlines boarding passes because he had one handy after flying Northwest earlier this week. He said he has nothing against the airline.

Soghoian said the fake boarding pass couldn't get anyone onto a flight — as long as the airline's computers were working — because the bar code wouldn't match the other information on the pass.

Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski said the airline immediately notifies the TSA and law enforcement agencies if it discovers a fraudulent boarding pass.

Soghoian said taking nail clippers and liquids away from travelers is just giving them a false sense of security, and that he's trying to show where the real threats are.

"When they say 'For security reasons,' everyone shuts up, everyone follows the rules, and no one questions authority. And I don't think that's right," he said.

He said no one from the government had complained to him about the site, yet.

"If I get a letter from the government telling me to take it down, then I'll take it down straightaway," Soghoian said.

Ahaha.  Awesome.  I love this.  Having flowing a half dozen times in the past several weeks, I can report that security at airports is a f'ing laughingstock and anyone with half a brain could smuggle just about anything they wanted onto a plane.

I was handed a sheet by the TSA nitwit at the back of the line and told to hand it off when I got to the head of the line.  The sheet was supposed to tell them how fast they were getting passengers through screening in Philly.  Great idea, right?  Well, yeah... except for the fact that it wasn't time-stamped to start with, so after waiting for 25 minutes to get through security, I suggested to the TSA guy that they might want to re-think their auditing procedures.  He looked at me and told me to move on.

F'ing community college dropouts should NOT be in charge of screening passengers for weapons & explosives.  Call me a snob but I think someone with a modicum of intelligence and training should be doing that job.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

It sounds like a very nice web sute.

[Rome]

Cill yourself.