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Perils of Careless Redaction
by Andrew McCaskey
Heroes, Not Villains
There was all sorts of uproar in the mainstream media concerning the publishing of the TSA procedures manual, with redaction removed. It was as if a great hacker-based scandal had erupted, pushing the security of the US air transport system closer to the brink, just at the time when millions were contemplating their Christmas season travels. Not only was it dramatic, it was the sort of fear-mongering that was sure to set the airwaves of telephone call in urgency in motion.
The facts of the matter seem to point to a clumsy request for quotation that was put in place by the TSA, with the material put forth as an example of procedures that prospective bidders would have to comply with. The TSA itself “redacted” the more sensitive information by turning the text background black around the sensitive areas. It’s just the sort of technique that might be effective in say, preventing a fifth grade class from seeing the answers in a “fill in the blank” quiz, but giving them some idea of what the test might look like.
The various al-Quaeda tech teams around the world probably had more than a few chuckles. Note that by the time that the students were in the seventh or eighth grade, the redaction would be worthless.
So, if the bad guys have the information anyway, why not expose some incompetence in the agency procedures that permitted the incident to happen in the first place ? Embarrassing, yes – but the hackers did not tell any bad guys what they didn’t already know. {sharethis}
TED Talk Sixth Sense Pranav Mistry
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