Posted August 6, 2008
After an unencrypted Verified Identity Pass laptop containing pre-enrollment records of "approximately 33,000 customers" was "discovered to be missing from San Francisco International Airport on July 26," the Transportation Security Administration prohibited Verified from enrolling new participants in its Clear registered traveler program. Verified has since found the laptop and said "a preliminary investigation" found that it "was not accessed from the time it went missing." The episode created a lot of chatter on the huge
Slashdot community of "nerds," which slammed Verified and threw in a whole bunch of great points about airline security and the registered traveler program, including: "The only reason planes were so effective in 9/11 is because they [took them over] and [flew them into buildings]. That sort of thing won't happen again. I have a feeling everyone on the plane would fight it. Continuing to secure them like they're bloody Fort Knox is ridiculous" and "Does it basically come down to people paying to not have to stand in line with the rest of humanity at the airport? Ding ding ding!"
According to TSA, "Clear enrollments remain curtailed
" while the agency investigates.