Blogger Jonathan Corbett, who recently exposed what he claims is a serious weakness in the TSA's nude body scanners, says that the TSA is now "strongly cautioning" journalists against covering the story. Corbett has gotten multiple emails from journalists who received the TSA's warning, and is encouraging media outlets to cover the story anyway.

The TSA has posted a response denying that Corbett's trick for beating the scanners -- placing a metal object on your side, where it will disappear against a dark background -- actually works, because the body scanners are just one of "20 layers of security" in place at airports.

Interestingly, a paper published in 2010 in the Journal of Transportation Security seems to support Corbett's claims. The authors wrote that "an object such as a wire or a boxcutter blade, taped to the side of the body, or even a small gun in the same location, will be invisible" to the backscatter scanners.

[slashdot]