FBI won't charge student for boarding pass site

The FBI is no longer investigating an IU doctoral student who raised security concerns last month when he created a Web site that could generate fake Northwest Airlines boarding passes. After interviews and a search of his property, the FBI has concluded Chris Soghoian didn't have malicious intent when he set up the site in October, said Indianapolis-based FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne.\nSoghoian said he intended to draw attention to a flaw in airport security and said he is frustrated his message was lost during the investigation. He added he is annoyed it has been a month since the government shut down the site, yet there have been no efforts as of yet to fix the security loophole. He also said someone has created another generator anonymously, and the government has not removed it from the Web yet.\nTim Morrison, assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said the office would not press criminal charges against Soghoian. \nAuthorities told Soghoian that Northwest Airlines could potentially sue him for copyright issues since he used its boarding pass, but Northwest Airlines spokeswoman Jennifer Bagdade said the company "will not speculate on that" at this time.\nSoghoian said he had not been notified of any pending civil litigation against him, but for now, he said he's just happy he isn't going to jail. \nWhen the FBI initially contacted him Oct. 27, Soghoian was left on his own for legal help after the University said it would not help him. The next day, the FBI raided his apartment and took his computers, three passports, his plane tickets to Spain for a Christmas trip and "anything that could store data" because he refused to hand over his belongings without the presentation of a search warrant, he said. Soghoian said he went door-to-door in the IU School of Law and called Student Legal Services without success before he finally found a Stanford law professor and a "white-collar crime" attorney in Washington, D.C., who were willing to take his case pro bono. \nHe also spent a night away from home for fear the FBI would come back, he said, as he slept in a sleeping bag in the Informatics Building lobby so he wouldn't lure the FBI to any of his friends' houses.\nSoghoian said the FBI returned most of his equipment and will be returning the rest in the next few days. He said authorities kept his hard drives intact, so he will be able to continue further research with the stipulation that he won't recreate the generator.\nBut Soghoian said his biggest frustration throughout the whole experience was the media's lack of focus on his intentions. He said he created the boarding pass generator to highlight security inadequacies, and those shortcomings were being overlooked.\n"It's really, really frustrating, the press getting off-point," Soghoian said. "I am actually working to improve airport security. Terrorism is something that I've seen up close, and the action of the United States government has been to engage in things that will not actually make you safer."\nSoghoian said the government's "no-fly" list does not work because people can make fake boarding passes and can fly if they claim they lost their identification. They will be thoroughly searched, he said, but they will still be allowed on a plane without ever having to prove their identity. Soghoian said he has tested his claim and said he has been able to fly \nwithout identification twice out of Indianapolis and twice out of Washington, D.C. \nSoghoian said this was the reason he created the fake boarding pass generator. He said he intended for it to show the public how easily someone can bypass the "no-fly" list, though he never personally printed or used a fake boarding pass.\n"Al-Qaida should never be the first people to test your system," he said. "If terrorists are the first to test your system, then you've failed"