TSA Workers’ IDs sold for $40 apiece

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is investigating a former clerical worker accused of obtaining personal data on at least 16 TSA employees at Boston’s Logan International Airport. The information was then sold for $40 each for use in setting up phony accounts, police say.

The Boston Herald reports that the unidentified contractor remains under investigation and has not been charged.

The newspaper and other media outlets reported that the contractor worked in the TSA’s human resources department at Logan before leaving in October 2008. The theft of the 16 employees’ Social Security numbers and dates of birth began in November 2008 and continued through 2009, exposing the employees to various credit problems like phony accounts opened in their names.

On Dec. 9, federal, state and local authorities used a battering ram to enter an apartment in Lynn, Mass., and arrested Michael Washington, 48, and his girlfriend Tina White, 46, WHDH-TV reported. Court records show that Washington is an uncle of the former TSA contractor under scrutiny.

White and Washington were charged with identity theft and larceny. Both are being held on bail.

Experts disagree on how the data breach reflects on the TSA. The Herald reported that a secret agency directive outlining new security measures following the failed bombing of an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day was leaked to bloggers. Sixteen days earlier, five TSA employees were placed on leave after a confidential guide on airport screening procedures was posted online.

“This stuff keeps going on, and they can’t control it,” said Andrew R. Thomas, editor of the journal Transportation Security and author of the book “Aviation Insecurity,” in the Herald. “It speaks of an agency that has huge personnel issues and dysfunctions.”

Anthony M. Amore, a former high-ranking official for TSA in Boston, tells the paper identity theft theft is a serious matter, but that “no one loses their life over it.”

Agency spokeswoman Ann Davis, meanwhile, said: “The TSA can assure the traveling public the release of this information does not compromise aviation security.”