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Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

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Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#61

Post by mbreese »

jdietrich wrote: post #41

It could be worse. Here in the UK, they would have locked him up for refusing to hand over his passwords. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act makes it a specific criminal offence and people have been imprisoned for it. Personally, I'm worried that I might get locked up for refusing to decrypt the contents of /dev/urandom. I think we need to wake up to the fact that there are a lot of people in power who would…

You know, if you ever wanted to keep something really hidden, naming it /dev/urandom (or some variant thereof) would be a good way to go.

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#62

Post by borism »

tomjen3 wrote: post #50
yequalsx wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I voted for Obama. I'm a liberal and he has lost the support of the liberals. We are not silent about the continuation, and in some circumstances extension, of the abuses. In quite a few races this past election cycle in the U.S. the Republican candidate won as a result of people like me voting for the Green party. Obama has been a profound disappointment to me in the area of civil rights. That a former constitutiona…

It is worse than simple ignorance: He understand the abuses perfectly well, he just doesn't give a shit. Let that be a lesson to all of us: politicians lie, trusting them is foolish.

Everybody lies and blindly trusting anyone is hardly a good idea. But it's the political system in the US that makes things so much worse.

There are other systems that do a little better, though no one is ideal.

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#63

Post by lusis »

_corbett wrote: post #59
lusis wrote: post #29

I was a bit surprised by the fact that he didn't want his name revealed in the article. It's not like some people don't know who he is. [edit] decided to respect Moxie's request in the article and remove a small bit of identifiable info

as he goes by Moxie socially as well, doesn't want his true name to be revealed is a bit sensational

True. I guess unless he's legally changed his name the feds and anyone who's cut him a check obviously already knows who he is.

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#64

Post by bhousel »

eli wrote: post #54
mbreese wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd just start FedEx'ing things and just take a book... Perhaps travel with just a SIM card and pickup a new phone when I landed. That's about the only thing you could really start to do.

I've heard that this is SOP for international lawyers. They don't want some border agent sniffing around confidential legal files.

Yes, you heard correctly. I remember a talk at a past LegalTech conference where the panelists urged anyone doing a lot of traveling (especially to 'sensitive' parts of the world) to simply travel with a 'spare' laptop, and keep everything important on encrypted USB drives, which can be sent through the mail in tamper-resistant packaging. It solves several problems:

1. Confidential data won't be compromised during a border search, theft, accident, etc..

2. You avoid the issue of being forced to give up your passwords to law enforcement.

3. If the laptop is confiscated, it can take months to get it back, so you wouldn't want that to happen to your main work machine.

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#65

Post by ralphc »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

If I were him, I'd be tempted to make an image of his drive, and compare that to an image made after the agents tampered with it, to see what changes occurred in the process. But like he said, he couldn't even trust them physically. I'd be tempted to just toss them in the trash, if I could afford to easily replace them.

Or just sell them, make back some of his investment, and have the people on the other end wonder why he's trading recipes or saying "OMG did you see that dress Kaitlin was wearing???".

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#66

Post by borism »

eli wrote: post #53
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What amazes me is that the great swath of Obama supporters who decried the Bush administration's civil rights abuses are strangely quiet about the continuation of those abuses today. (Caveat: I'm not American, but if I was, I would have held my nose and voted for Obama in 2008.)

I think you're wrong about that. Obama has very vocal critics on the left.

They're just not in the same left Obama is (if he's in the left at all, he's much more to the centre).

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#67

Post by mquander »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #43
jwr wrote: post #42

I find it amazing that there is so little outrage at what is happening in the USA. The country that paints itself as an example of freedom and democracy and aspires to spreading those values around the world is the same country that: * kidnaps and tortures people, * sets up a military prison with no civillian oversight, outside any legal jurisdiction, where it keeps people indefinitely, * kills people in various coun…

What amazes me is that the great swath of Obama supporters who decried the Bush administration's civil rights abuses are strangely quiet about the continuation of those abuses today. (Caveat: I'm not American, but if I was, I would have held my nose and voted for Obama in 2008.)

I don't think that's accurate. If you look at large, mainstream liberal community blogs like Daily Kos, there's frequent and harsh criticism of Obama on those issues.

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#68

Post by weavejester »

mbreese wrote: post #61
jdietrich wrote: post #41

It could be worse. Here in the UK, they would have locked him up for refusing to hand over his passwords. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act makes it a specific criminal offence and people have been imprisoned for it. Personally, I'm worried that I might get locked up for refusing to decrypt the contents of /dev/urandom. I think we need to wake up to the fact that there are a lot of people in power who would…

You know, if you ever wanted to keep something really hidden, naming it /dev/urandom (or some variant thereof) would be a good way to go.

Or perhaps "one-time-pad.txt" :)

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#69

Post by vaksel »

jwr wrote: post #42

I find it amazing that there is so little outrage at what is happening in the USA. The country that paints itself as an example of freedom and democracy and aspires to spreading those values around the world is the same country that: * kidnaps and tortures people, * sets up a military prison with no civillian oversight, outside any legal jurisdiction, where it keeps people indefinitely, * kills people in various coun…

many people are blinded to what is going on...as long as they are more or less secure themselves, they don't care about what happens to all those other people...after all if the gov't is doing it to them, they must have done something bad.

This is the same reason why most people in Nazi Germany, were fine with being Nazis(talking about the civilians here).

Re: Another Hacker’s Laptop, Cell Phones Searched at Border

#70

Post by tsycho »

jwr wrote: post #42

I find it amazing that there is so little outrage at what is happening in the USA. The country that paints itself as an example of freedom and democracy and aspires to spreading those values around the world is the same country that: * kidnaps and tortures people, * sets up a military prison with no civillian oversight, outside any legal jurisdiction, where it keeps people indefinitely, * kills people in various coun…

I agree with your view whole-heartedly.

I think most* of the violations that you mention are done to foreigners (not just visitors, but also those who are working here on visas like me). And this population is not a part of the electorate. Hence the government doesn't really care much about them. And for most of us, it often makes sense to just stay under the radar and try our best not to get on any "government lists", else we might face much bigger trouble down the road every time we fly, or need a visa renewal etc.

* The TSA is the major exception here, in that they seem to be non-discriminatory in their abuse

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