Gokis Kiosk Self-Service

Airline Kiosks Exposing Private Details?

Nice expose by TV station in Oregon that figured out that United Airlines kiosks are only parsing first initial and last name name on the credit card that is swiped and then calling up all names that match. I've Been Meditating on who does the kiosks for United....

PORTLAND, Ore. - Kiosks are meant to speed up the check-in process at the airport, but security experts say they could be open doors for terrorists to hide their identities on U.S. jets.

Our investigation began when a frequent flyer on the nation's third-largest air carrier, United Airlines, wrote to KATU News explaining how easy it would be for someone to get their hands on someone else's boarding passes using the airline's kiosks.

We wanted to see if the claim was real, so we headed to Portland International Airport with a hidden camera to find out.

Using a credit card belonging to KATU Photojournalist Brian Smith, we found what we were looking for in no time.

Just by slipping his credit card into the kiosk and punching in his name, we had access to 21 different Brian Smiths flying United Airlines. We could have chosen any flight we wanted to on the list and printed the boarding passes using someone else's identity.

rest of story link with pictures

Posted by staff at November 21, 2007 11:39 AM