Encryption of Agency's Web Documents Probed
Source: ISP World
Computer security followers are questioning the way the U.S. transportation security administration, which oversees airport security and other transportation issues, is protecting some restricted documents on its Web site.
Four documents available on the "Security and Law Enforcement" section of the TSA Web site can be accessed and stored by any Internet user. A password in Microsoft Word keeps the document from curious eyes.
But once on a user's hard drive, the documents -- intended for local law enforcement and airport management -- can then be probed by password-breaking software that can spend days or weeks trying combinations of passwords, without triggering a security alarm or locking the user out of the file.
"If you can check it offline and no one else notices, there's no way to enforce any kind of a lockout policy," said Burt Kaliski, chief scientist of RSA Laboratories, the research arm of RSA Security Inc. RSAS.O
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the government moved to secure information that could be of use to enemies.
