Pilot's Missing Laptop Causes Airport Security Scare

wjla ^ | April 24, 2008 | not specified

[RDTF]

A pilot's laptop, filled with top secret security information was reported missing at Dulles Airport and the ripple effects were felt across the country.

The Mesa Airlines employee couldn't find the personal laptop he brought with him while co-piloting a United Express flight from Birmingham, Alabama to Dulles International Airport.

17 airports were forced to make emergency changes to access codes at Dulles, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago's O'Hare and San Antonio.

Various officials within the airline industry admit that with these access codes, someone who went though security could, with the touch of a few buttons, get onto a plane or get outside, right below a plane.

A TSA spokesperson said, "On April 17, Mesa Airlines notified TSA that an employee reported a laptop, containing confidential information, had been misplaced, lost or stolen."

Federal and airline officials admitted that the classified codes on the computer provided the pilot, through a keypad, access from the gate to the plane and down to ground level right below the plane.

Passengers were appalled. "That's just a major security breach for everyone that flies within the United States."

One airline insider tells ABC 7 News the laptop was probably stored in an overhead compartment used by passengers and likely stolen.

Federal officials quickly contacted 17 U.S. airports used by the pilot, warning them of the security breach. Media representatives for a number of those airports affected, including Dulles, Phoenix and Akron-Canton said the codes were promptly changed. ABC 7 News learned one security official at a midwest airport rushed to work in the middle of the night to prevent a breach.

-snip-

[coloradan]

1. So, was it top secret or confidential?

2. Is this the usual way of transporting classified information?

[coloradan]

3. The classified information was encrypted with strong encryption, right? With no password stored on the same computer, right?

[dfwddr]

Meanwhile, a TSA official said the agency, "may look at increasing the standards for anyone who stores this type of information on their computers."

You think ????? WTF?

[dman4384]

I bet most people had no idea that access codes were stored on pilots laptops. I certainly didn’t

With this story, a big bulleyes is now placed on any pilots laptop.

furthermore, why would they use fixed codes anyway? Many companys with relatively low security requirements have long abandoned fixed access codes and went to rotating codes combined with a personal fixed code (see secureid devices)

[Clarinet_King]

Carrying that kind of info on what is essentially an “unclassified” system is a big no no.

That was the pilot’s personal laptop, which means he used to it to check his email, surf the web, putting those security codes in all manner of risks.

Operational Security people - Learn it, Live by it.

[MrPiper]

Would someone here please enlighten this pilot what type of “secret security information” would be on his laptop? I can fly anywhere in the US, avoiding restricted airspace of course, and I need no “secret security information”. Possibly some “secret security girlfriend/stewardesses information”?

[Clint Williams]

Ya get the government you vote for, sheeple.

[BatGuano]

1. Confidential
2. Yes

The carelessness of the pilot is serious and will be dealt with for sure. A breach of security by a crewmember, considering the horrible torture we are all put through by the TSA when we fly, is unforgivable. Now ask, was the pilot's ID badge with the laptop? Was the pilot's computer personal passcode etched on the computer? Was his employee code obtainable? Wouldn't airport or airline personnel challenge someone trying to access the airplane or the ramp? Believe me, many times I had to ask the gate agents to help me get on my own airplane, because the gate codes were harder than programming the B-777 that I flew!

[relee]

With this story, a big bulleyes is now placed on any pilots laptop.

That's ok. Most pilots store the codes in their cell phones. As long as they don't target the cell phones we'll be safe.

[Little Pig]

He was keeping a list of door access codes for various airports on his personal laptop. They don’t explicitly say this in the article, but it can be inferred through the statements about anyone having those codes being a few keypunches away from access to the tarmac, and the statement about 17 airports needing to change all their access codes.

[CORedneck]

WTF ! When I worked for Lockheed Martin, I had a TS clearance but with it came a lot of responsibility. First and foremost is the protection of classified information. Procedures to do that had to be followed. Second, if you did not need to know the information, you avoided looking at it - need to know basis. When I had to deal with classified info, I went out of my way not to look at it or to know it. Luckily in my position, I was a Sys Admin - my job is to keep the computers running, therefore, it was very easy to avoid knowing the information.

The pilots laptop, if it had actual classified information, why wasn't it guarded to where it didn't get lost such as being in a safe ? In my career with LM, I had to carry classified information one time - I was required to do this. I preferred not to do this. It was emphasized that I was to carry it from point A to point B, no stops of any kind either. I made sure I got gas before I went to pick it up. When I got to my destination, I insisted the security person for the facility was there to receive it, therefore, it was in my possession for the shortest amount of time.

[CurlyDave]

The pilot did not have DoD TS information on that computer. Period.

It might have been Homeland Security TS, or Podunk Airline TS, but it was not DoD TS.