Enlarge image
Russian arms smuggler Wiktor But: With 16 alias names on the no-fly list
Photo: Sukree Sukplang / REUTERS
Swiss hacker and activist maia arson crimew , formerly known as Tillie Kottmann, has discovered an outdated version of the US government's so-called no-fly list online.
The file was on a server that the US airline CommuteAir claims it uses for testing purposes.
This is reported by "DailyDot".
According to the report, the list of people not allowed to fly to, within, or out of the United States is as of 2019.
The airline confirmed this.
The list is part of the Terrorist Screening Database, a US government database of people associated with terrorist organizations.
The file named "NoFly.csv" has around 1.56 million entries.
According to "DailyDot", there are many alias names and variants of the same name, so the number of people affected is much smaller.
For example, the Russian arms smuggler Viktor But is on the list along with 16 possible aliases.
But was recently released from US custody in exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner and was allowed to return to Russia.
Also on the no-fly list are members of the Irish IRA, as well as a boy who, according to his stated date of birth, is only eight years old.
Crimew had discovered the list, along with other files containing, among other things, personal data of airline crew members, using a special search engine on an unsecured server.
She writes in a blog post: "Although this information is sensitive, I believe it is in the public interest to make it available to journalists and human rights organizations".
Among other things, the hacker became known for her involvement in a hack of the American surveillance camera manufacturer Verkada, in which 150,000 cameras in hospitals, prisons, schools, police stations and companies such as Tesla were tapped.
The US government therefore brought charges against Crimew almost two years ago.
It's not the first time a version of what is normally a confidential no-fly list has fallen into the wrong hands.
As early as August 2021, the Ukrainian security researcher Volodymyr Dyachenko found a comparable list on the Internet.
It contained the names of 1.9 million people as well as their citizenship, gender, date of birth, passport number and, of course, no-fly status.
pbe
