The Department of Homeland Security has issued a blistering audit of security weaknesses at JFK Airport that sharply rebukes the TSA for stonewalling demands for data and trying to keep it secret from the public.
The inspector general's audit was conducted between November 2013 and April 2014 and led to a 50-page report that identified weaknesses of the "technological infrastructure" of the airport and made recommendations on fixing them.
The report focused on computer system vulnerabilities, including routers and servers; locked draws left opened; logs not properly maintained; lapses within the closed-circuit television and surveillance apparatus; and fire protection and detection, including a lack of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in critical areas.
Three other federal agencies that operate at JFK Airport — U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Secret Service — were also audited, but the report reserved its harshest criticism for the Transportation Security Administration.
Inspector General John Roth charged that the TSA stonewalled his original request for certain information for more than five months by not promptly responding.
The agency also wrongly insisted that lapses involving access to "sensitive equipment" be kept hidden from the public.
Such lapses were marked by the TSA with a special security designation — known as "SSI," for "sensitive security information" — requiring that they be redacted from Roth's draft audit.
Roth appealed to former TSA head John Pistole, noting that the data he sought to publicize had "been disclosed in other reports" and posed no real threat if it was highlighted in his report.
That information, Roth added, merely contained "generic, non-specific vulnerabilities that are common to virtually all systems and would not be detrimental to transportation security."
"My auditors, who are experts in computer security, have assured me that redacted information would not compromised transportation security," he added.
Pistole referred the IG's appeal back to "the head of the SSI program office — the very same office that initially and improperly marked the information" as warranting redaction.
"Not surprisingly," Roth noted, "the office affirmed its original redaction to the report."
As a result, Roth blacked out portions of his report, forcing him to appeal to federal legislators who oversee the TSA, in a bid to make the data public in his final report.
The TSA's decision to misapply the "sensitive security information" designation subverted his ability to do his job, Roth insisted.
"Our ability to issue reports that are transparent, without unduly restricting information, is key to accomplishing our mission," he noted.
A spokeswoman for the TSA declined comment.
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