Interesting article from ABC News, "A 24-year-old computer security student [named Christopher Soghoian] working on his doctorate at Indiana University Bloomington has created a Web site that allows anyone with an Internet connection and a printer to create and print fake boarding passes for Northwest Airlines flights." The originator's purpose is apparently to highlight flaws in the TSA's system in order to cement closed the cracks.
One of the interesting aspects of the ABC article is that it does not link to the site in question -- tho' coverage in Wired does...or did. Clicking on the link now renders a "site not found on this server" notice. (Soghoian's homepage displays a link to the boarding pass generator but it also leads nowhere.) I expect the explanation for this lies in the following paragraph from the Wired story, "On Friday, Congress heard Soghoian's message loud and clear. But instead of promising to reform broken airport security procedures, Rep. Edward Markey (D- Massachusetts), a member of the House Homeland Security committee known for his defenses of privacy, wants the site shut down and Soghoian arrested." Which is crazy because, as Soghoian himself observes Soghoian points out Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) publicized the same security hole in April 2006. He adds, "perhaps Sen. Schumer will end up being my cellmate."
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