The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was founded in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks in an effort to improve safety and security on commercial air travel.
Throughout its existence, the agency has faced a wide variety of security threats, but one major threat has remained consistent over the years: fraudulent forms of identification. In recent years, that threat has only gotten more severe as fake IDs have become more sophisticated and easier to obtain.
As the TSA continues to combat fake IDs and prevent travelers from using them to board commercial flights, one expert has weighed in on how that challenge has evolved as technology has improved across the board in recent years.
TSA Faces Problems With Fake IDs
Fairly regularly, the TSA posts on its official social channels about fraudulent forms of identification that it confiscates at airport security, as it did last week when a passenger attempted to go through a security checkpoint with eight fraudulent state licenses.
“Another Diabolik discovery at Newark-Liberty International Airport. When numerous electronic devices alarmed in a passenger’s carry-on, our officers were shocked to discover eight fraudulent state licenses,” the TSA wrote in a Facebook post last week. “The passenger’s identity crisis was quickly referred to local law enforcement, and the individual was promptly arrested.”
“Fake IDs can be used for travel for criminal purposes, which is a real concern.”
Security Expert Jake Parker
This came just a month after the TSA confiscated “a bag full of fake IDs” at the Newark Airport. Clearly, fake IDs are a regular issue that the TSA deals with, and they have the potential to pose a very real security threat.
Why Fake IDs Pose a Threat
When most people think of a fake ID, they probably think of the most common and relatively harmless use of an underage adolescent trying to buy alcohol before they turn 21. However, fraudulent IDs can pose much more of a threat than that.
During a recent interview with Men’s Journal, security expert Jake Parker, who is the Senior Director of Government Relations of the Security Industry Association (SIA), explained that criminals often attempt to use fake IDs for travel for criminal purposes. One hypothetical example he used was someone on the FBI watch list using a fake ID to travel.
With advancements in technology, he explains, these IDs have gotten much cheaper and much more sophisticated.
“Fake IDs can be used for travel for criminal purposes, which is a real concern,” Parker told me during a recent phone interview. “And they’re so good now, I mean you can get you can get a REAL ID fake ID from China for not very much money.”
New Technology Helps
In the past, passenger identification was verified manually by a TSA agent. This process involved a human verifying the validity of a form of identification and then comparing the photo to the face of the person standing in front of them, all with just their eyes.
Obviously, this is not a perfect method of verifying IDs, especially given how sophisticated fake IDs have become in recent years. However, new technology has been a game-changer in this regard, Parker explains.
“You can now use technology to verify the validity of the travel document for the ID, obviously, that’s really necessary with the proliferation of fakes out there,” Parker said.
Most major airports around the country now use technologies like Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) to scan and analyze physical ID documents for fraud and to verify flight details against a database.
Fake IDs have been a major security threat to the TSA in recent years, but this technology has helped the agency crack down on them, as evidenced by multiple instances within the past several months where the agency has seized several fake IDs.
