The U.S. Transportation Security Administration made a glaring mistake and apparently it's an oversight. The TSA accidentally posted a document online containing secrets related to airport passenger screening practices, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The TSA operating manual, posted on a federal procurement website last spring, spells out technical settings of X-ray machines and explosives detectors and other passenger and luggage screening details.
Former agency officials and congressional critics said the oversight exposed practices that were implemented after the September 11 attacks and following other security incidents.
"It increases the risk that terrorists will find a way through the defenses," the Washington Post quoted Stewart A. Baker, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, as saying.
What was exposed online?
According to the Washington Post, the 93-page document also includes pictures of credentials used by U.S. lawmakers, CIA employees and federal air marshals and describes when certain firearms are permitted past the checkpoint.
The manual was posted on the Internet and blacked-out passages were easily recovered, the Post quoted TSA officials as saying.
A second former DHS official was quoted by the post as saying that this was more of a public relations blunder than a security risk because TSA manuals are circulated widely in the aviation community.
An internal review is being done of this 'oversight'.
Written by Cheryl Phillips
HULIQ.com
sources: NY Post
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