TSA "Refreshes" Website, Removes Critical Report [s]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Ryan Singel [c]" <ryan () ryansingel net>
Date: November 11, 2005 3:53:04 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: TSA "Refreshes" Website, Removes Critical Report [s]

TSA "Refreshes" Website, Removes Critical Report
http://www.secondaryscreening.net/static/archives/2005/11/tsa_refreshes_
w.html#000251

The Transportation Security Administration has removed a link from its
website to an internal report highly critical of its newest airline
passenger screening proposal, while simultaneously adding rebuttals to
it.

The scathing report was written by a group of privacy experts and
technologists appointed to the Secure Flight Working Group, which was
tasked by the TSA with evaluating the effectiveness and privacy risks of
its proposed upgrade to the current passenger watchlist system, now
dubbed "Secure Flight."

Frustrated by incomplete briefings, the group recommended that Congress
ban live testing of the program until the Department of Homeland
Security clarifies how it will work.

When asked about the delinking of the report, TSA spokesman Nico
Melendez said by email the delinking was part of a "'scrub' of our
website."

"Several items have been refreshed to ensure appropriate information for
public consumption is available," Melendez said.

The report was posted in full to the TSA's website in mid-September to
the surprise of several group members who did not expect the critical
report would be allowed to be made public.

"Based on the limited test results presented to us, we cannot assess
whether even the general goal of evaluating passengers for the risk they
represent to aviation security is a realistic or feasible one or how TSA
proposes to achieve it," the report said. "We do not know how much or
what kind of personal information the system will collect or how data
from various sources will flow through the system. Until TSA answers
these questions, it is impossible to evaluate the potential privacy or
security impact of the program..."

The group's membership included security expert Bruce Schneier, noted
technologist Ed Felten, corporate privacy lawyer Martin Abrams, and
Steve Lilienthal of the conservative Free Congress Foundation.

The TSA has since delinked the report, replacing it with an executive
summary of the report (.doc) that simply summarizes the nature of the
working group and the Secure Flight program. It contains none of the
report's findings.

[...]
Remainder snipped and is available at
http://www.secondaryscreening.net/static/archives/2005/11/tsa_refreshes_
w.html#000251



--

------------------------ [ SECURITY NOTICE ]
------------------------

To: dave () farber net.

For your security, ryan () ryansingel net

digitally signed this message on 11 November 2005 at 20:51:09 UTC.

Verify this digital signature at http://www.ciphire.com/verify.

------------------- [ CIPHIRE DIGITAL SIGNATURE ]
-------------------

Q2lwaGlyZSBTaWcuAjhkYXZlQGZhcmJlci5uZXQAcnlhbkByeWFuc2luZ2VsLm5ldABlb
WFpbCBib2R5AN8HAAB8AHwAAAABAAAAPQR1Q98HAABcAgACAAIAAgAgPpl8vu5jIdyL0C
N6oZuZZHFK35sOVTvZsVW0UGMsNakBADG563dNxDvGS8VLOeZ90C6RxKP5T09BHSgsbJ0
7IFTkpt9tRaqzWXR/pr076K9oV0QGd016CgcLO+99iU0DtF7UU2lnRW5k
--------------------- [ END DIGITAL SIGNATURE ]
---------------------




-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/