Make sure your SSH keys have a password.
don't store ssh keys.
Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#32Anyone know what happens if your laptop is dead when you go through border control? I mean, they probably don't keep laptop chargers for every model around.
I've gone through airport security with a dead laptop before at a time when they would occasionally ask people to turn on their laptop. They just waved me through.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#33Obviously the officials involved in this case were let go, right? Because who would enter into an official database that they want to abuse border searches to search an attorney for a person in an ongoing case with the government, and for that exact reason?
No one in government considers it to be an abuse. That's the problem.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#34Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I leave mine behind whenever I travel outside the US, not so much because I am afraid to be on a list (although after reading this article, that fear has risen somewhat) but because I employ encryption on my laptop. If they do search my device for anything illegal, they will inevitably ask for my password, which I don't want to give for philosophical reasons. Then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be detained and…
"I don't remember my password."
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Silly question. Let's assume you have a device like a Macbook Pro or a Macbook Air, where you can't physically remove the drive without ungluing the device. You hotrod the firmware so only trusted USB devices with a specific encryption key are permitted to connect. How would the drive be imaged?
Thunderbolt target disk mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3838 Perhaps you could solve this by "hotrodding" the firmware, but it's not particularly obvious how you could do that without risking bricking your laptop.
Perhaps Apple needs to require a password to boot off USB or to access target disk mode.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#37Is the best strategy here to leave your devices at home and just bring a burner phone on holiday or other travels and no other devices? It's strange as an ordinary citizen who might choose to contribute to someone like Manning's defence fund, or post statements supportive of Snowden online, to have to consider that GCHQ or the Homeland Security might put your name on a list for questioning and confiscation at the bor…
I leave mine behind whenever I travel outside the US, not so much because I am afraid to be on a list (although after reading this article, that fear has risen somewhat) but because I employ encryption on my laptop. If they do search my device for anything illegal, they will inevitably ask for my password, which I don't want to give for philosophical reasons. Then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be detained and…
Look into Hidden Volume technology. Then you can give them the "password" and they can look around all they want.
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I don't remember my password."
It's illegal not to provide your password in the UK, not sure what the rules are under these special powers in the US.
What if you genuinely don't remember your password? Is it in effect memory loss that's been made illegal?
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#39Is the best strategy here to leave your devices at home and just bring a burner phone on holiday or other travels and no other devices? It's strange as an ordinary citizen who might choose to contribute to someone like Manning's defence fund, or post statements supportive of Snowden online, to have to consider that GCHQ or the Homeland Security might put your name on a list for questioning and confiscation at the bor…
[deleted]
Re: Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I leave mine behind whenever I travel outside the US, not so much because I am afraid to be on a list (although after reading this article, that fear has risen somewhat) but because I employ encryption on my laptop. If they do search my device for anything illegal, they will inevitably ask for my password, which I don't want to give for philosophical reasons. Then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be detained and…
Look into Hidden Volume technology. Then you can give them the "password" and they can look around all they want.
I have. However, my fear is that it will either not work when it's needed, or that they may have some manner of technology that allows them to scan for such things, or possibly the footprints left behind by such software, or logging them into an OS that looks like a fresh install might be enough to illicit some suspicion.
Politely declining to share your password is within your rights at the US border. However, giving them a "fake" password seems like it may be a crime. And even if it's not, it will certainly get you detained and your laptop taken.
Thankfully, I don't need my laptop that much when traveling overseas and my stupid non-global Verizon phone won't work anyway. Much safer to leave it behind.