What do they say about loose lips, a vintage World War II slogan? Today, you can say the same thing about loose emails.

It turns out that a Transportation Security Administration officer compromised covert testing of airport security screeners by sending out an email about the testing, according to the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security. At the core of the issue was an email to TSA employees in 2006 that the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department were conducting a secret test of airport security checkpoints at Jacksonville International Airport in Florida.

The email outlined how the test was being carried out."Our review confirmed that TSA officials compromised our covert testing methods and made no effort to report the compromise to OIG," the DHS inspector general reported. "TSA's disclosure of covert testing procedures was inappropriate, and thus potentially undermined the integrity of our ongoing covert testing."

What's the lesson here? Some emails should be sent with higher level security notifications or at least on a need-to-know basis. But the real question is how many other tests across the government have been compromised by careless handling of critical information?

For more on this TSA snafu:
- check out this nextgov.com article