Watchdog identifies screening problems at domestic airports

Internal investigators at the Homeland Security Department identified a number of security vulnerabilities in passenger screening by the Transportation Security Administration, an unclassified version of an auditor’s report reveals.

“We identified vulnerabilities in the screening process at the passenger screening checkpoint at the domestic airports where we conducted testing,” according to a report by the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General. A summary of the audit, dated November 2011, was obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a watchdog group, and published earlier this month.

The findings add to criticism against the agency, which has come under fire from privacy advocates for screening measures considered overly intrusive and ineffective.

The report did not provide further insight on the flaws found in the scanners. The auditor made eight recommendations and “TSA concurred with all the recommendations,” the document notes.

TSA has invested more than $87 million to buy, install and maintain its advanced imaging scanners, as of January 2011, the auditor’s report notes. Of that total sum, $77 million involved the purchase of millimeter wave technologies, which bounce electromagnetic waves off a person’s body to generate a 3-D image, as well as backscatter devices, which make use of X-ray beams.

Hat tip: Bruce Schneier’s Schneier on Security blog.