Thread: Security Loophole (again...)

Originally Posted by cnn

A congressional investigation has exposed gaping holes in security eight years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a government report says.
An investigator used fake documents to obtain a U.S. passport, a congressional report says.
An investigator used a false identification to obtain a U.S. passport and then used the passport to get an airline boarding pass and go through an airport security checkpoint, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said its undercover investigator conducted four tests of the passport issuance system and "easily" obtained passports every time.

Individuals with "even minimal counterfeiting capabilities" can obtain genuine U.S. passports, which can be used to travel overseas, open bank accounts and prove U.S. citizenship, the GAO report says.

In the "most egregious" case, it says, the investigator used the Social Security number of a man who died in 1965 to obtain a Social Security card. In another case, he used the Social Security number of a 5-year-old child and obtained a passport, even though his counterfeit documents and application indicated he was 53 years old...
... To perform the test, the GAO designed four scenarios. In each, an investigator simulated the actions of a malicious person involved in identity theft, then created fake documents using "off-the-shelf, commercially available hardware, software, and materials."

The investigator used the counterfeit documents to obtain a genuine Washington, D.C., identification card.

For three of the tests, the undercover investigator submitted passport applications and supporting materials at U.S. Postal Service locations that accept passport applications.

For the remaining test, it submitted the application and materials to the State Department's regional passport office in Washington.

"State and USPS employees did not identify our documents as counterfeit in any of our four tests," the GAO report says. The State Department "issued a genuine U.S. passport in each case."

"All four passports were issued to the same GAO investigator, under four different names," it says. The tests occurred between July and December of last year.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/14/pas...ity/index.html

i'm not sure if i'm surprised or not, on the one hand i would think we would have at least some control and not be this bad. But i still feel there are many many more loopholes and hardly believe in the whole Bush and the Patriot Act protected us. IMO we haven't been attacked because they haven't tried to, hopefully they don't or things get patched up before they do, but i believe there will be another attack sometime unless further steps are made to improve security (while protecting the rights of American Citizens)

I mean England has camera and all sorts of shit and they still got attacked at least 2 time (IIRC) after 2001

It doesn't surprise me either, but I'm glad it's brought to light. Hopefully something will be done since it's public knowledge now.