The TSA has passed a new law that won't let you on a flight if you have forgotten your ID. Doesn't this seem like a no-brainer? You shouldn't let anyone on a flight without an ID, but there is another big gap in security right now.

The big gap in security involves allowing individuals to print boarding passes from home. The reason why it is a problem is that the TSA does no verification to actually see if the name on the printed boarding pass is actually a valid passenger on a flight. All I would need to do to get past the TSA screening station would be to create my own boarding pass and go to the airport. I don't even need to buy a ticket and I can go through screening like any other passenger.

I think that this is a real threat that has to be dealt with. Especially since that once you are past security you don't have to verify that the ticket you are holding is your own. There would be nothing stopping someone with trading their fake boarding pass with a real one that someone else had. With the current method that we have now it wouldn't matter if I was on a TSA watchlist or not.

The TSA needs to tie into the airlines passenger lists or start some other secure method of verifying passengers. There also needs to be better verification at the gates to see if the ticket holder is the person boarding the plane. One method of verification would be some sort of Airport ID system. It would be an ID that is issued at the TSA screening checkpoint that you would have to turn in when you boarded the flight. This of course would still have to tie into the airlines passenger listings to only allow those with valid boarding passes past security.

What the TSA is doing now is just Security Theater and doesn't do anything to protect us.