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TSA Answers for Latest Security Gaffe

Airlines & Airports, Terrorism, USA — on December 10, 2009 2:28 pm

TSA sarcastic logoThe Transportation Safety Administration has placed five of its employees on administrative leave after sensitive airport screening manuals showed up online this week.

This latest blunder, while embarrassing for the TSA, is also a serious breach that could help terrorists skirt the inspection process.

Keep reading to find out what sensitive information was leaked and what it means for your safety.

TSA allegedly posted the document in question on the Federal Business Opportunity site without taking adequate steps to protect the sensitive security information it contained. Instead of actually deleting the information from the file, they simply covered it up with a black box. As a result, some people were able to recover the original text and post it to their own Web sites.

Find out: Additional TSA Security Measures: Progressive or Oppressive?

The document clearly states that it contains sensitive security information that may not be disclosed to anyone without a “need to know.” Among other things, it explains the settings on X-ray machines and explosive detectors at airports and the modus operandi for screening specific passengers, including prisoners, federal air marshals, law enforcement officers, diplomats, and others.

Great day to flyNotably, the manual instructs agents to give additional screening to passengers with passports from 12 countries (Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) unless otherwise directed. It also says that flight crew members in uniform with valid IDs do not have to follow the same restrictions on liquids, gels, aerosols, and footwear.

The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the incident Wednesday morning. In addition to taking action against the TSA employees responsible for the indiscretion, Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the TSA is conducting an internal review to ensure a similar incident never recurs.

Throughout the hearing, TSA officials downplayed the significance of the leak. While some committee members called the manual a “textbook” for terrorists, TSA officials maintained that there was nothing in the report that a potential enemy couldn’t otherwise find out by simply observing screening procedures at airports.

Napolitano claimed that the leaked information was out of date and that travelers were never put at any risk.

The committee has suggested bringing in an independent federal agency to review the incident. They have yet to identify the person who ordered the sensitive material to be posted.

By Dan Bence for PeterGreenberg.com.

Related Links: The Wandering Aramean , CNN, NPR

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  • Anonymous

    I sure hope this article isn’t meant to be taken as “unbiased” journalism, or even journalism at all. I’m fairly certain that isn’t a real logo. And DOT? I thought that agency is under DHS? Trust me, I get the joke, but the majority of those workers are hardly “standing around”, as your clever logo states.

    I agree that an independent agency should be formed to investigate what happened; news agencies have been reporting that contractors were to blame, with TSA employees who were acting as supervisors. I’m very curious to find out who the contractors were.

    I’ve read dozens of news reports on this incident, and I would call this article sensationalist more than anything else. With that said, I don’t think this leak is what TSA wanted when they said they were going to be more “transparent”. Heh. First no transparency, then COMPLETE transparency! No middle ground?

  • http://rebelmodel.com/tsa/ Trollkiller

    Napolitano is correct, the release of the poorly redacted document does nothing to compromise security. Every piece of “SSI” was already available elsewhere and in greater detail.

    How to calibrate the metal detector is available on the DOJ site complete with technical drawings of test objects. The specs on the x-rays are available to anyone that purchases the device. Even the IDs shown are of such poor quality you could not use them as a source for creating a forgery.

    The most damning thing about the whole SOP faux pas is the fact that this confirms the TSA uses SSI designations improperly.

    How is policy that a STSO is supposed to keep TSOs from touching explosives, weapons and incendiaries Sensitive Security Information worthy of being hidden from the citizens of this country? Every company I know has a similar policy or they just assume their Supervisors are smart enough to know it.

    The TSA uses the SSI designation to cover up its employees breaking the SOPs, making up their own SOPs or breaking the law. It also uses the SSI designation to hide embarrassment in lawsuits against the agency.

    This SSI is entrusted to low paid, low level employees with a turnover rate nearing 20%. If you have nefarious intents just bribe a disgruntled TSO. A lot more reliable than waiting for the SOP to fall in your hands.

  • http://www.docscorp.com/ DocsCorp

    The latest redaction incident with the Transport Security Administration (TSA) highlights two important issues:
    1. If you need to redact documents, get software that will enable you to redact PDF documents safely.
    2. If you have redaction software, make sure your staff know that they have it and how to use it.

    DocsCorp has published a White Paper on how to redact PDF documents safely. Download a complimentary copy of the paper.
    http://www.docscorp.com/public/home/publicRedaction.cfm

  • http://www.thepilotswifetraveltips.com/ Tracy K.

    Until we start screening for terrorists vs. screening for weapons only, TSA is impotent. Until security officials start thinking like terrorists and taking an offensive position vs. a defensive position, TSA is impotent. It still bothers me very much that my husband who is an airline pilot, has to go through security screenings like everyone else after undergoing extensive background investigations when he is flying what can be used as a weapon. That the flying public thinks that this is “for our safety” is even more baffling. That being said, having a small piece of security information exposed on the internet is not going to be the breach that the terrorists need to gain the upper hand.

  • ZInkzombee

    Napolitano should get the BOOT. The buck stops at Obama’s oval office door regarding this blunder. He can’t blame George Bush anymore!