TSA suspends Secure Flight, pending IT audit]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

TSA Chief Suspends Traveler Registry Plans
Feb 09 10:55 AM US/Eastern


By LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON


Security concerns have caused the government to suspend plans for an
ambitious program to check every domestic airline passenger's name
against government watch lists, Transportation Security
Administration chief Kip Hawley said Thursday.

 Hawley told the Senate Commerce Committee that he has directed that
the program's information technology system "go through a
comprehensive audit."

 Hawley did not say whether any security flaws or breaches had been
discovered.

 The program called Secure Flight has been troubled from the start.

 It is strongly opposed by civil libertarians who fear the program
would grow into a massive domestic surveillance system in which the
government tracks people whenever they travel.

 Nearly four years and $200 million after the program was put into
operation, Hawley said last month that the agency hadn't yet
determined precisely how the it would work.

 Government auditors gave the project failing grades _ twice _ and
rebuked its authors for secretly obtaining personal information about
airline passengers.

 Currently, airlines check the names of passengers against watch
lists that the government gives them. Under Secure Flight the
government would take over from the airlines the task of checking
names against watch lists.

 The Sept. 11 commission later urged the administration to expedite
the task because, it said, the watch lists currently used by airlines
aren't complete.

 But checking names against watch lists hasn't been as easy as it
sounds, partly because airlines collect only limited information
about passengers.

 Also, the number of names on the watch lists increased into the tens
of thousands since the Sept. 11 attacks. That problem has resulted in
passengers from infants to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy being mistakenly
told they couldn't fly because they have the same name as someone on
the watch list.

 The project has also drawn protests from privacy advocates and civil
libertarians because its stated purpose has changed, often expanding.

 Project managers once said that it would be used to track down
violent criminals, and then backed down. They've also proposed using
commercial data, such as that supplied by Choicepoint, to locate
members of terrorist sleeper cells among people who buy airline
tickets.

 ___


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