Congressman Wants Answers About TSA Site (Waxman)

[babylonsister]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/02/security_fix_report_on_tsa_sit.html?nav=rss_blog

Citing reports by Security Fix and Wired, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is demanding that the Transportation Security Administration produce a raft of documents to explain why it created a Web site for airline travelers that lacked basic security protections.

In a letter sent Friday to the assistant secretary of the TSA, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) ordered the agency to produce all documents "relating to the period during which the site operated without encrypted data transfer protections, including the number of travelers who may have submitted their personal information to the site during the period when the site was not SSL-protected." The TSA has until March 9 to submit the documents.

Referring to reporting by Wired's 27B Stroke 6 blogger Ryan Singel about numerous spelling errors on the site, Waxman noted: "In fact, the overall appearance of the site was so poor that web experts first assumed it was a so-called 'phishing' site, a site internet hackers had created to look like a TSA website page."

The "Travel Verification Identity Program" Web site was designed to provide redress for airline travelers who have been delayed or prevented from boarding a plane on account of their name matching an identical one on the agency's "no-fly" list. The Department of Homeland Security has since launched a new version of the site that addresses most of the concerns expressed in Waxman's letter.

By Brian Krebs | February 24, 2007; 12:30 PM ET

[salin]

1. wow... think it was an 'accident'?

so convenient that those who report problems (and want help) per inclusion on the 'no-fly' list.... have to submit personal data and said data is unsecure... Just sayin...

KnR

[babylonsister]

2. I don't know. It could be sheer incompetence, but either way,

I'm glad Waxman is getting a handle on it.

[madokie]

4. incompetence runs deep in this bush* cabal

I'm just so glad we have the grownups in the majority now but we can't forget thanks to holie joe liberlie we have to take each day as it comes, not knowing when he might flip or even if he will, I think if it suits him he will. wishy-washy people like him get under my skin.

[notadmblnd]

3. probably just poor training and english

of a foreign webmaster

[babylonsister]

5. So you think the job of webmaster was outsourced, I take it.

Nothing would surprise me.