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Israel airport security stole my laptop

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Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#41

Post by Zak »

devy wrote: post #25

Just a tangent: TLV is the most secure airport in the world though.[1] You wouldn't think the most secure airport is in the middle east but it is. Compare to Israelis' human approach, the billions dollars the U.S. spent by the corrupted TSA on invasive cancer causing body scanners and still have tons security breaches is a joke. The wikipedia page has a few reports explained in details why it works at TLV. Worth a re…

> You wouldn't think the most secure airport is in the middle east but it is.

Yes, I would. I would expect the most secure airport in the world to be in a small country that has been at war with several of its neighbors within living memory. I would expect it to be a country that's technologically-sophisticated and well-funded. I would expect it to be in a country that has had issues with terrorism.

In other words, Israel is exactly where I would expect to find it.

Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#42

Post by siffland »

xoa wrote: post #20
opless wrote: post #6

This 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.…

I will preface this with saying i dont think stuff like this should happen, however in the DoD we are advised to never take a personal laptops (or phones) to a foreign country, only take a secondary laptop and ensure the hard disk is encrypted. Also keep as little information on the drive as possible.

Furthermore if a laptop (or other electronic device) is purchased in a foreign country either dont bring it back or bring it back and shred it.

I know this sounds extreme and expensive, but with cloud storage and cheap laptop's i cant imagine anyone travling to a foreign country not being able to have a secondary "disposable" machine with cloud backups (could be a challenge in say china, but if you are doing buisness in a country like that (government monitored and access restricted) you should have company policies in place already).

Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#43

Post by projectramo »

notyourday wrote: post #31
boltzmannbrain wrote: post #2

Curbside 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…

Israel does profile based on the airline. It is a reasonably ( i would actually say very well ) known fact.

The #1 destination for passengers from Ben Gurion is Istanbul flown mostly by Turkish Airlines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Gurion_Airport#Top_destina...

I assume they're very comfortable with Turkish Airlines at this point.

Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#44

Post by basementcat »

I thought that all sovereign nations had the authority to seize whatever they want at border crossings. I always travel with the assumption that all my belongings (on my person) are subject to confiscation.

This has two consequences: 1. I travel light and 2. If something doesn’t get seized that’s great news!

Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#45

Post by megous »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #16

Must'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.

> Unless they suspected you of economic espionage...

This also may be a part of industrial espionage done by Israel.

Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#47

Post by markvdb »

Don't travel. Or use a disposable laptop when traveling. Something like the Thinkpad x240 is rather sturdy, small form factor, with perfect linux support. Shouldn't set you back more than ~150-200€.

Pull in whatever data you need after passing these risky checkpoints. Destroy the data again afterwards.

Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#48

Post by desireco42 »

boltzmannbrain wrote: post #2

Curbside 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…

I am sorry for what happened to you. I really am.

I heard before that Israeli security can be scary if they sense you went to either Palestinian areas or some of their flags get triggered. But no excuse for them to do what they do.

I hope you raising this issue help you get your laptop back.

I personally worry that they might take my laptop from me and install some spyware, so I try not to carry one, or if I do, travel with Chromebook. Whenever I can get away without carrying laptop, it is huge relief to just breeze through customs. Essentially excuses they have to talk to you are diminished and potential for some unpleasant interaction are greatly reduced.

I carry Kindle and if I have to Chromebook, life is much simpler. Friends borrow me their laptops if I have to do some work.

Again, sorry for what is happening to you, I can't even imagine how horrible you are feeling, hope for quick and positive resolution.

Re: Israel airport security stole my laptop

#49

Post by giancarlostoro »

bibyte wrote: post #26

This is crazy. Does anyone know how common this kind of thing is ? I don't know anything about airport security. How can some data on a laptop be so dangerous ?

I mean Stuxnet comes to mind:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

Of course all it takes is a malicious USB.

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