Foreign Agents Gain Access to Do Not Fly List After Latest Hack

In a perilous development for national security under President Joe Biden, foreign hackers were able to infiltrate the nation’s terrorist screening database, access the confidential No Fly List and even had the ability to change or cancel flights.

In a story broken by the Spectator, a 23-year-old transgender Swiss hacker named Maia Arson Crimew “who uses ‘it/its’ and ‘she/her’ pronouns was able to get the list in a matter of hours.”

Crimew was indicted by a U.S. grand jury in 2021 over a previous hack.

Maia Arson Crimew Selfie [Photo Credit: maia arson crimew, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

Now congressional leaders want to know how and what the Biden administration is doing to stop it from happening again.

U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark E. Green, MD, R-Tenn., and Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Subcommittee Chair Representative Dan Bishop, R-N.C., are demanding the TSA explain how a Switzerland-based hacker accessed recent versions of the Federal Terrorist Screening Dataset, as well as a version of the No Fly List.

In their letter to TSA administrator Green and Bishop wrote, “Based on this reporting, the Committee understands that as many as 1.5 million data entries, including names, dates of birth, and aliases of individuals prohibited from flying into, out of, within, or over the United States was accessed on an unsecure Amazon Web Services server belonging to CommuteAir, which operates flights exclusively for United Airlines across several major hubs in the United States, including Washington Dulles, Denver, and Houston.”

The extent of the hack is disturbing. The hacker reportedly had the ability to delay and cancel flights, potentially throwing the entire air travel system into chaos.

The hacker was also reportedly able to change airline crew assignments.

“(T)he hacker claimed they may have been able to exploit their access to the server to cancel or delay flights and even switch out crew member,” Green and Bishop write. “If this were to be the case, the national security implications of this are alarming.”

“As you are keenly aware, the transportation systems sector is one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors in the United States, ensuring the free movement of people and goods essential to the American economy and way of life. The notion that such a consequential database be left unsecure is a matter concerning cybersecurity, aviation security, as well as civil rights and liberties,” they add.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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Donny Ferguson

Donny Ferguson is a professional fundraiser and organizational manager. Born and raised in Texas, he has lived in Washington, D.C. for 16 years. Ferguson also served as Senior Communications and Policy Adviser in the United States House of Representatives, operating one of Capitol Hill's most effective media operations.

5 Comments
    Sandra Smith

    Cancelling flights, or delaying them is bad enough; changing crew assignments could be extremely dangerous in ways most people will never consider! Being “route qualified” for a particular destination is always helpful, but as with every other experience in life, there is always a 1st time. However, the real danger is in the “minor” differences between models of the same basic aircraft, for which pilots used to have a period of ground school, simulator training & flight time with instructor pilots, because those are really not so minor when something goes awry, & a wrong response to that model, 1 designed for a different model, can frequently be fatal, in a crisis cascade.

    Sandra Smith

    To the censors: disregard prior comment. I am unsubscribing from your site! I don’t post threats, personal attacks etc, unlike your leftist posters. I will take myy information elsewhere!

    Alan

    Re this latest leak, data breach or whatever you might call it, another Biden Bo-Bo? I wonder.

    Joe

    WTF this incompetent corrupt, president and his circus of clowns, running the government has been hacked again,this is a danger to our national security. What has this trainwreck,failure,of this admiinistration, done right in 2 yrs, I can’t think of anything,everything hidenbiden does turns to crap, and more crap, how can one person,and a handful of idiots,do so much crapping without being,investigated and shut down.These fools have put this country in extreme danger,because they don’t have a clue what their doing.

    Paul

    If memory serves, the administration where Biden was Vice President was totally incompetent, too.
    This country needs an enema. Badly.

Comments are closed.

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