I boarded a plane at a small regional airport two weeks ago. And noticed some new and unusual behavior by the TSA screener at the security checkpoint.
After I walked thru the metal detector, he took a small penlike device and scanned it across the name, address and photo on my driver’s license. Slowly. Twice. Which is why I figured he was scanning. At first my reaction was that he was optically scanning the information into this “pen” and that it would be dumped into a computer later on.
Bruce Schneier is a fantastic source of information and particularly the debunking of security and security myths. From what I’ve read on Bruce’s blog, it’s possible that the TSA guy was just running an ultraviolet light across the license to look at the holograms on the license. But my eyes are pretty sensitive to UV and honestly I didn’t see any reflection. (Cool video of Bruce’s Q&A at defcon 15.)
So I’m still working the theory that he scanned an image that would later end up in a TSA computer. (See IRIS pen scanner, or look at what the New York Times reported last year.)
What would happen to that scanned information? Well, if banks and healthcare institutions are any indication, it would likely go (via USB) onto a laptop computer somewhere, later on to be stolen.
I am continuing to research this, but wonder if anyone else has run into this scanning behavior by TSA?
It was one of TSA’s Travel Document Checkers using a black light to ensure your ID was not fraudulent or altered. The light checks holograms, etc. – it does not scan your information into any computer. At TSA, we call this Lights and Loupes – black lights and magnifying loupes. Here’s web content on the document checking program: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/tdc/index.shtm
Jim, I have seen them pointing a blue pen at my license, and it’s clearly showing up an emblem that appears on the license. So I don’t think it’s a digital scan. Can’t imaging TSA could manage that process, frankly…
Getting comments on this post … clearly two things have happened. Striking a responsive chord, I guess. And it’s obvious that TSA is looking around online to see what people are saying about them.
On the first thing, my eyes can usually see black light when other people don’t notice it, and I didn’t notice it and therefore was curious. Like most people, I kind of keep my nose out of questioning law-enforcement officers unless they’re way out of line, and so I didn’t bother having a discussion at the time. I go thru customs all the time, and unless there’s something out-of-the-ordinary, I just keep quiet. Even though I’m just a regular traveler doing nothing unusual.
Second, it is clear that TSA is paying attention to their public image and to questions. That’s a good sign, I think, as long as they’re listening and not just defending. I think we got the appropriate response in this case.
And third, to take the line of reasoning Bruce Schneier might take, it is likely to assume that in the future, air terrorists would want to use real documents, not forged documents. And TSA will be catching lots of “petty criminals” who are indeed breaking the law, but probably not a threat to security. So the outcomes are unrelated to air security, but are germane to law enforcement of various (other) types.
So that said, and being generally positive about it because all of my documents are in order … as you should guess, my concern is for the *number of places* that data about citizens’ travel could possibly be recorded. In the US, information about individuals’ travel used to reside primarily with private companies (airlines, rental car companies, credit card usage, etc.) – and it has migrated increasingly into governmental databases over the last 7 years. The more places the data is available, the more likely it could be abused. Take care of that data!
I thought TSA was looking for drug residue. Cocaine would glow under this lighting condition. Just a thought.