This article seems pretty poorly written to me. It takes a bunch of unrelated information and tries to imply that there is a relationship.

The article was a rant against US security measures (not that I agree with them) based on a security hole in the BA web site. Why didn't the article go into more detail about the BA web site problem? From what I can tell, a password is required.

I love the part that states "Using this information and surfing publicly available databases..." and then goes on to state "This is terrible," he said. "It just shows what happens when governments begin demanding more and more of our personal information and then entrust it to companies simply not geared up for collecting or securing it as it gets shared around more and more people. It doesn't enhance our security; it undermines it."

Where is the realtionship between data stored on publicly available databases and governments? Where is it proven that these databases exist because of governmental demands? These databases problem exist because of commercial rather than governmental demands.