In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers. The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operation Procedures were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame.
The document shows sample CIA, Congressional and law enforcement credentials which experts say would make it easy for terrorists to duplicate.
The improperly redacted areas indicate that only 20 percent of checked bags are to be hand searched for explosives and reveal in detail the limitations of x-ray screening machines. The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operation Procedures were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame.
This is an appalling and astounding breach of security that terrorists could easily exploit,” said Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. “The TSA should immediately convene an internal investigation and discipline those responsible.”
Read the article and read the screening procedure…if you feel so inclined.
*Moran = web speak for Moron.
Careful with that moran stuff. Here in Oz, the Morans are a notorious crime family.
Then this guy’s in trouble:
Har!
psy-ops
USA, the scardiest country on the planet. I feel bad for all the nice people who live there, and there are many.
This “unintended” leak will of course now give them the excuse to change and tighten up their security screenings. Mostly, it will be an excuse to appropriate more money, for the changes. But I can’t help wonder what else they’ll impose on the passengers? Now they’ll be searching the things they listed were the exceptions. Like artificial limbs.
Amd will this kill any hope of a “bill of rights” for the flying public? Maybe that was the plan, all along. The TSA, doing the dirty work of the Airline industry. Who’da thunk it?
I don’t believe that they couldn’t have redacted the manual pages, in some better way. Like with photo editing software. MS Paint could have done it. Just black rectangle out the inappropriate lines and paragraphs. But my guess is that they already had this PDF file made up of it. And didn’t want to take the time to go back to the original source material or file. And physically redact the old fashion way. So they only added masking code to the existing PDF document. At least that’s the excuse they want us to buy.
By downloading that TSA bulletin, you are automatically added to the TSA No-Fly list. You will be there forever. No explanation. No appeal. No due process. No airline seat for you!! Take the bus with John Madden.
We’re from the government. You can trust us to protect you…And they do a good job of it except when they don’t.
So the “fix” is to just reprimand those responsible. This does not address the SECURITY breach at all.
The real WTF here is that TSA people can read?
Ummm…this is all fun and all, but in my experience the government and its many agencies tend to be a rather humorless lot (the IRS comes to mind) and I would treat the referenced document as a highly radioactive item. I would not promote it, re-post it or even put up a link to it.
Yeah, it is out there and control is totally lost, but while I know that and you know that, some faceless bureaucrat doesn’t and collecting a few scalps here and there might make his bosses feel better. Be Careful with this — unless you like endless discussions with creepy guys in suits.
Wait a minute, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security is really Superman???
The TSA is a joke and has been since day 1. The FSD’s (field safety directors) are the main bosses at an airport. Each airport has an FSD. During the brief time I worked at TSA, the FSD at my airport was in an office over a mile away, and rarely ever showed his face. Most FSD’s and other managers are retired military just double dipping for a second pension. Virtually none of them have any real security training or knowledge. Almost all management are political appointees or friends of friends.
The SOP is a large 3 ring binder that sits in the office and is seldom seen by the front line screeners. If you bother to read it, you will see that it gives enormous discretion to the FSD’s. That is why screening procedures are rarely the same from one airport to another.
When I started early in the life of TSA, they had many intelligent smart people who wanted to do a good job. But it quickly became apparent that promotions were limited to the’politically’ connected and daily life was managed by often unhappy, unsophisticated, and sometimes dumb managers, who were more interested in whether the screener’s uniform was correct than actual security. Morale quickly plummeted. Any one with any intelligence or ambition, quickly left for real jobs. Both managers and screeners.
The frequently quoted 20% figure was a minimum standard for airports without baggage scanners. Most class A and B airports scan 100% of checked luggage using CT scanners (like cat-scan machines in the hospital). Only luggage that ‘alarms’ in the scanner is opened and checked.
But was…
“The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operation Procedures were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame.”?
You didn’t say.