Look at a map of Israel, lucky to leave there alive. There are 2 active wars in neighboring countries.
Israel airport security stole my laptop
11–20 of 103 posts
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#12Good argument for taking a laptop that is basically a thin client to a VNC-over-SSH session.
if the thin client hardware is compromised you're back to square one
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#13Curbside security guard asked a couple basic questions ("How long were you in Israel? Where are you traveling to?"). The guard at the first security gate inside asked ~20 questions (4-8 is normal). I think answering that I'm a SW engineer to "What do you do for a living?" made her suspicious. I was then directed to a side security area where they searched my bags and discovered my laptop. A few guards then escorted m…
Wow, sounds like a real-life nightmare. What kind of questions did they ask you during that 2-hour interrogation?
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#14Good argument for taking a laptop that is basically a thin client to a VNC-over-SSH session.
if the thin client hardware is compromised you're back to square one
I don't think that was the point.
A thin client (super cheap 'disposable' laptop) and a beefy remote workstation will give you all the horsepower to do your work, but limit the financial damage if the laptop gets stolen by airport security bullies.
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#15Curbside security guard asked a couple basic questions ("How long were you in Israel? Where are you traveling to?"). The guard at the first security gate inside asked ~20 questions (4-8 is normal). I think answering that I'm a SW engineer to "What do you do for a living?" made her suspicious. I was then directed to a side security area where they searched my bags and discovered my laptop. A few guards then escorted m…
Wow, sounds like a real-life nightmare. What kind of questions did they ask you during that 2-hour interrogation?
It was more of the rapid-fire "where did you stay? what did you do your previous trips to Israel?", but also asking where I got the computer from, what I use it for, why I brought it to Israel, if anyone else touched it, etc.
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#16Must've triggered something when they questioned you. Maybe you just made yourself non-Grata over there too by sharing this story.
At least they should have said, wait, let's clone it and here is your laptop back. Unless they suspected you of economic espionage or whatever and didn't you to have it with you. Either way, unless charged with a crime it's theft.
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#17Good argument for taking a laptop that is basically a thin client to a VNC-over-SSH session.
if the thin client hardware is compromised you're back to square one
if people are breaking into your hotel room while you're not there to install rootkits in its bootloader, hardware keystroke loggers, or similar (google "evil maid attack"), you're probably the target of somebody with the capabilities of a nation-state intelligence agency. at which point all bets are off.
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#18This is a good argument for never taking any electronic devices outside your home region. Even if you get your device back, after someone takes it behind the curtain and fiddles with it ... How can you be sure that they have not compromised it for its onward journey?
a) take simple phone or tablet or second hand laptop for traveling
b) don't say software, security or other keywords in airports.
c) enjoy your time abroad :D
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#19Must've triggered something when they questioned you. Maybe you just made yourself non-Grata over there too by sharing this story. At least they should have said, wait, let's clone it and here is your laptop back. Unless they suspected you of economic espionage or whatever and didn't you to have it with you. Either way, unless charged with a crime it's theft.
It's not theft because that would require Israeli law condemn the action. Given the kind of things they currently do at other border crossings, I wouldn't hold your breath on that one.
Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop
#20This is a good argument for never taking any electronic devices outside your home region. Even if you get your device back, after someone takes it behind the curtain and fiddles with it ... How can you be sure that they have not compromised it for its onward journey?
>This is a good argument for never taking any electronic devices outside your home region.
For most of us here in particular that's very silly as well as completely unrealistic, we need some level of electronics for our work even beyond that it makes many kinds of travel much more practical. However, what is worth considering (at least when traveling internationally) is to have specific dedicated travel electronics. One consequence of the end of Moore's Law and the flattening of the performance curves in PCs and now mobile devices as well is that older kit can still be perfectly serviceable for travel usage. I replaced my 4 year old notebook and 3 year old phone last year for example, but this time rather then sell the old ones (which aren't worth that much anyway) I just kept them and changed them into specific clean travel devices (and with the notebook in particular oriented around remote work for most stuff).
That kind of opsec was a lot more expensive and difficult at one point, but these days I think it's ever more practical and it reduces potential headaches and opportunities for screwups (by me) a lot. It's much easier to make sure nothing critical is on a device I wipe regularly and much easier to maintain compartmentalization with physical separation. If any of it ever was seized I'd still be bummed/irritated, it's still worth some money and on a practical level it'd mean I didn't have it for the rest of the trip (even if the rest is just "the flight home" and all I wanted was to read a bit). But nothing I couldn't just write off ever seeing again or that could cause me any trouble even if it was cracked.