

The Security Threat of Forged Law-Enforcement Credentials - wglb
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/01/the_security_th.html

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pak
An impossible threat to fix, for all the reasons discussed in the article and
comments. The only disincentive you can rely on for somebody showing you a
fake badge is the small comfort that it is a huge felony for the guy to do so,
so he's either really a cop or willing to face some hard time. Either way,
resisting is not a good idea.

Having a lawyer on retainer and speed dial might help you catch some of the BS
and/or protect yourself, but most Americans can't afford that. A (supposed)
cop can easily claim PC to prevent you from calling anybody else.

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joe_the_user
It is a further argument against all of the automatic law-enforcement back
doors.

Investigators were able to walk-in and request a background check on a
fictitious name by waving a badge.

Suppose someone waving a badge could take down a website or get all
communications involving a given person?

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motters
It's not a scenario that I'd considered as a possibility before, but it does
seem quite plausible that a hijacker masquerading as police or an airport
security guard could get onto an aircraft without going through even so much
as a metal detector. All they would need would be something which looks
convincingly like a uniform, some fake badge and a gun.

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dustinchilson
Actually to go through the security checkpoints armed federal agents need to
have 2 sets of tickets printed from the check in desk. Which requires a call
to their supervisor. They then have to fill out a form at the security check
point and are asked for a secret password/code that is changed periodically. I
don't think that just having credentials is going to get you past security.

I know this because I have a friend who flys armed since he is a Border Patrol
Agent.

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motters
In that case maybe this isn't the loophole that I thought it could be.

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russell
From a comment: >>> Collecting police badges is a popular hobby for many
policemen and they didn't want to have to stop.

They rate their hobbies above the safety of the public. I guess this is
nothing compared to all the other security screwups going on.

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Herring
They probably didn't see that policy helping.

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b_emery
Business model alert:

> I'd like to be able to photograph a law-enforcement badge with my camera,
> send it to some police website, and get back a real-time verification --
> with picture -- that the officer is legit.

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kschua
I wonder how big a problem this is. Might be something people can look at.
Ties in with what I am passionate about, security

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zaphar
Loved the E. E. Doc Smith reference :-) in one of the comments. A whole series
of books where a major plot point was unforgeable credentials. Don't meet many
people familiar with the series though, so I'm always surprised when I see a
reference online.

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dantheman
I'm a huge of the series, I've read them all.

The series is called Lensman

[http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Lensmen-Triplanetary-
Lensma...](http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Lensmen-Triplanetary-Lensman-
Galactic/dp/1568658044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294957193&sr=8-1)

