Freedom to Tinker points (Rescorla on Airport ID Checks) to the Educated Guesswork blog, which notes an incredibly stupid airline ticket verification protocol (Airport ID checks: a broken protocol). The article shows how, even if you were Osama Bin Laden, you could print your airline ticket at home and avoid being screened through the government databases. Great.

Educated Guesswork also suggests some elementary methods of closing this security hole (Designing a non-broken boarding pass protocol). Given the relative ease of the fix, you have to wonder if anyone in the Transportation Security Administration is really concerned with airline security, or if they simply want to violate privacy.

In a related story, the New York Times (reg. req.) reports on Steven Brill's new venture to create private, third-party "I am not a terrorist" ID cards that will smooth your transit through security at airports, major sporting events, etc. (Venture to Offer ID Card for Use at Security Checks). Great.