TSA workers disciplined after massive breach

The Department of Homeland Security has taken unspecified action against a number of Transportation Security Administration employees following the leak of a massive document that revealed airport screening secrets on the Internet. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano disclosed the action during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

A contract employee was responsible for failing to properly redact a 93-page TSA operating manual onto a government procurement website, allowing computer users to recover blacked-out information by copying and pasting it into other documents. TSA supervisors also were involved, Napolitano said.

"The security of the traveling public has never been put at risk," Napolitano said. TSA said earlier this week that the document was out of date and had been subjected to six revisions after the breach. Nevertheless, the document provided a treasure trove about how TSA operates at the nation's airports.

Some of the information disclosed included:

> The settings used to test and operate metal detectors.

> When certain firearms can pass through the checkpoint.

> When police, fire or emergency personnel may bypass screening.

> The minimum number of security officers who must be present at checkpoints.

> How often checked bags are to be hand-searched.

> The screening procedures for foreign dignitaries and CIA-escorted passengers.

"We have already initiated personnel action against the individuals involved in this," Napolitano told panel Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), without elaborating. "We have already instituted an internal review to determine what else needs to be done to make sure this incident never recurs."

Stewart A. Baker, a former assistant secretary at DHS, predicted said that the manual will become a textbook for those seeking to penetrate aviation security.

"It increases the risk that terrorists will find a way through the defenses," Baker told the Washington Post. "The problem is there are so many different holes that while [the TSA] can fix any one of them by changing procedures and making adjustments in the process...they can't change everything about the way they operate."

For more on this TSA breach:
- see this Washington Post article [1]