Comments for Boarding Pass Dude's Computers Seized, Public Service Praised

Boarding Pass Dude's Computers Seized, Public Service Praised

2006-10-30T18:34:12Z

BoingBoing is really your one-stop shop but:

• The FBI seized Chris Soghoian's computers and ransacked his house.
• The congressman who called for Soghoian's arrest essentially retracted his comments and praised Soghoian for performing a public good, though he called it, "a lousy way of doing it."
• A TSA spokeswoman said, "Does this pose a threat to security? No."
• A Northwest spokesman said, "If someone were to print a fraudulent boarding pass with a first-class seat that was unassigned, they would quickly be discovered by our flight attendants."
• You can still mod your NWA boarding pass by hand-editing the HTML. Unless you're a noob.

So it looks like that website wasn't a danger, didn't aid terrorists, and was basically useless except for one thing: pointing out a big ol' security hole. Awesome, glad we got that one figured out.

Previously: Fake NWA Boarding Pass Site Removed, Creator Visited By FBI

Comment from Solo on 2006-10-31

2006-10-31T11:13:55Z

"You can still mod your NWA boarding pass by hand-editing the HTML."

Now I guess all there is left to do for the FBI is to ransack every household where those so called hands are used for that illegal hand-editing of the HTML. Also MS Frontpage.

Wow. We are becoming a police state.

Comment from orielbean on 2006-10-30

2006-10-30T23:14:03Z

Markey is one of the true progressives in the Congress, Marty Meehan is another (pushed for true net neutrality vs the lobby-funded crap, as well as fought like a demon for term limits.)

Comment from CalyopiNYC on 2006-10-30

2006-10-30T22:58:33Z

Stuff like this really makes me want to vomit. They better give him his equipment back.

Comment from Trai_Dep on 2006-10-30

2006-10-30T21:25:19Z

Happy happy joy joy. It's good to see that Rep Markey realized the context of Soghoian's actions, realized he erred then courageously did a 180. Awesome!
Hey out of curiosity, how many of you campers wrote Markey asking him to reconsider?
I did (nicely!!). Curious to see if any Consumeristas got involved too.

Comment from acambras on 2006-10-30

2006-10-30T20:09:06Z

Looks like the government is a tad defensive about Homeland Security's incompetence.

Comment from Triteon on 2006-10-30

2006-10-30T20:02:17Z

He would've done better to print up a bunch of fake passes for reporters, and mail them to those reporters.
And, may I add, the President and his Cabinet, and each member of the Senate and Congress. Make sure the officials know that the press was also contacted.

Comment from John Stracke on 2006-10-30

2006-10-30T18:52:42Z

He would've done better to print up a bunch of fake passes for reporters, and mail them to those reporters.