TSA Web Snafu Prompts House Inquiry

The acting head of the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) Wednesday sought to reassure a House subcommittee that the inadvertent posting of sensitive airport security information on the Web didn’t pose a material threat to passenger safety. “Our response was swift, decisive and comprehensive,” Gale Rossides told members of the Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on transportation security. “I want to reassure all members of this committee and the traveling public that our aviation system is strong and that passengers will fly safely this holiday season and every day.” Today’s hearing continued the outcry on Capitol Hill after the revelation earlier this month that a 93-page document detailing airport screening procedures had been publicly available on the Web since March. The document had been redacted, but a blogger demonstrated that the original version could be restored with relative ease. The TSA took the document down within hours of learning of its availability, though Rossides said she had no enforcement mechanism to limit the spread of the untold number of copies that had already been made.