So, Christopher Soghoian created a very simple PHP script to generate a Northwest Airlines (NWA) boarding pass and now has become the centre of a very strange attack by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) forcing him to shut down his site.
Mr Soghoian (pronounced Soh-Goy-An) said in his blog that there was no ill-intent in his generation of the page – and that it was merely an attempt to draw attention to a floor in the current security procedures. I think this is diluting the point a little.
Regardless of this being done to draw attention, as a stupid prank or with malicious intent – his site only made it slightly easier then U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer’s detailed instructions. Just making it illegal to create a fake boarding pass is not going to fix the problem. I can not believe that a home printed document can allow people past security. Why not put a “Self-Check-In” terminal that scans the barcode in the entry foyer and issues a real boarding pass. At least there can be confirmation that there really is a ticket issued with those details.
It amazes me how consistantly the wrong end of the issue is attacked, I suppose the phrase “Don’t shoot the messenger” comes to mind.
The DIY Boarding Pass by Troy Kelly, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
