Christopher Soghoian was trying to make a point — that airport security measures aren't entirely effective. But his method did not please federal officials.
Mr. Soghoian, a doctoral candidate in informatics at Indiana University at Bloomington, posted on his Web site a tool with which visitors could print authentic-looking boarding passes for Northwest Airlines. The ersatz passes weren't likely to help anyone sneak aboard a flight — electronic screening at departure gates would sniff them out — but they might have let their holders make it through security checkpoints, he said.
The student's little experiment drew the attention of the FBI, which conducted a search at his house this weekend, reported The Washington Post. "Inside," Mr. Soghoian wrote on his Web site, "is a rather ransacked home, a search warrant taped to my kitchen table, a total absence of computers — and various other important things." He has not been charged with a crime. But the boarding-pass tool, needless to say, is no longer posted. –Brock Read
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