In a scathing article for the Wall Street Journal, former Transportation Security Administration chair Kip Hawley slammed the agency saying "it is a national embarrassment that our airport security system remains so hopelessly bureaucratic and disconnected from the people whom it is meant to protect."

Hawley, who served as TSA chair from 2005 to 2009, says the agency requires a complete overhaul, and that it has spent years standing behind a "wrongheaded approach to risk."

He goes on to say that the rules and regulations in place today are outdated given modern security improvements.

"Never again will a terrorist be able to breach the cockpit simply with a box cutter or a knife," he says. "The cockpit doors have been reinforced, and passengers, flight crews and air marshals would intervene."

In order to improve, the TSA must focus on managing risk, not enforcing regulations: "Terrorists are adaptive, and we need to be adaptive, too. Regulations are always playing catch-up, because terrorists design their plots around the loopholes," he writes. Otherwise, the TSA will continue to waste time and money that can be better spent preventing risks, he explains.

To that respect, Hawley proposes five initiatives to improve the agency. Here they are: