The creator of the NWA Boarding Pass Generator has taken down his site after coming under heavy national scrutiny.

BoingBoing reports that this Saturday morning, the FBI visited Chris Soghoian and handed him a written order to take down the site. By this time, Soghoian had already removed the generator.

On Friday, Rep. Edward Markey (D- Massachusetts) called for the site’s removal and Soghoian’s arrest.

As Wired points out, the hole is nothing new. Bruce Schneier wrote it up in in ’03, Slate in ’05, and Sen. Chuck Schumer issued a press release about it in April ’06.

Soghoian, a security researcher, has never used one of the facsimile boarding passes and says his only intent was to bring public attention to a glaring security hole.

“The only way for these kind of problems to get fixed, are through through public full disclosure,” Soghoian wrote on his blog when releasing the boarding pass generator. “TSA/DHS cannot be expected to fix anything unless they are publicly shamed into doing so.”

(Thanks to Ian and Luke!)

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.