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DHS Secretary Johnson said "Today, I am announcing that
the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will
take additional steps to address the potential insider
threat vulnerability at U.S.
airports. These steps follow a 90-day Aviation Security
Advisory Committee (ASAC) comprehensive review conducted
at my request in January 2015. I also asked the ASAC to
identify other trends to determine if additional
risk-based security measures, resource reallocations,
new investments or policy changes are necessary.
"I made this request after an incident in Atlanta that occurred in
December 2014 which raised questions about potential
vulnerabilities regarding the screening and vetting of
all airport-based employees. Immediately following the
incident in December 2014, TSA increased the random and
unpredictable screening of aviation workers at various
airport access points to mitigate potential security
vulnerabilities.
"As a result of the recommendations contained in the
ASAC report, I have directed the TSA to take the
following immediate actions:
- Until TSA establishes a system for “real time
recurrent” criminal history background checks for all
aviation workers, require fingerprint-based Criminal
History Records Checks every two years for all airport
employee SIDA badge holders.
- Require airport and airline employees traveling as
passengers to be screened by TSA prior to travel.
- Require airports to reduce the number of access points
to secured areas to an operational minimum.
- Increase aviation employee screening, to include
additional randomization screening throughout the
workday.
- Re-emphasize and leverage the Department of
Homeland Security “If You See Something, Say
Something” initiative to improve situational
awareness and encourage detection and reporting of
threat activity".
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