What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
1–10 of 83 posts
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#21. Backup your documents on Dropbox/GDrive/Whatever (edit: can be you personal server. You can use Truecrypt, and not upload your datas uncrypted. The point is that you must not have the datas on your pc when you pass the border).
2. Wipe your PC.
Optional 2.5. Download a bunch of fake personal files.
3. Pass the border.
4. Access Internet.
5. Download your datas.
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#31. Backup your documents on Dropbox/GDrive/Whatever (edit: can be you personal server. You can use Truecrypt, and not upload your datas uncrypted. The point is that you must not have the datas on your pc when you pass the border). 2. Wipe your PC. Optional 2.5. Download a bunch of fake personal files. 3. Pass the border. 4. Access Internet. 5. Download your datas.
I don't trust these services.
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#41. Backup your documents on Dropbox/GDrive/Whatever (edit: can be you personal server. You can use Truecrypt, and not upload your datas uncrypted. The point is that you must not have the datas on your pc when you pass the border). 2. Wipe your PC. Optional 2.5. Download a bunch of fake personal files. 3. Pass the border. 4. Access Internet. 5. Download your datas.
Better just not to travel with your hardware, or if you have to, travel with something throwaway like a netbook without lots of personal data on it.
Otherwise you risk having all your hardware confiscated by border guards and returned months later. Your plan above won't work if they confiscate your hardware as you'll have nothing to download onto.
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#51. Backup your documents on Dropbox/GDrive/Whatever (edit: can be you personal server. You can use Truecrypt, and not upload your datas uncrypted. The point is that you must not have the datas on your pc when you pass the border). 2. Wipe your PC. Optional 2.5. Download a bunch of fake personal files. 3. Pass the border. 4. Access Internet. 5. Download your datas.
I don't trust these services.
"Whatever" can include your personal server. And you can store a truecrypt drive, no need to put your datas uncrypted.
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#61. Backup your documents on Dropbox/GDrive/Whatever (edit: can be you personal server. You can use Truecrypt, and not upload your datas uncrypted. The point is that you must not have the datas on your pc when you pass the border). 2. Wipe your PC. Optional 2.5. Download a bunch of fake personal files. 3. Pass the border. 4. Access Internet. 5. Download your datas.
With the recent history of topics here about the NSA having back doors into providers of services how is uploading your data where you suggest actually going to protect you?
If anything, I would go to the point of screwing with border agents by having tens of thousands of pictures of my dogs, kids, flowers, and whatnot, all with naming similar to PICnnnnn or whatever is the current default of most digital cameras. Having them given the wrong doc type would be a nice touch too.
Of course why not store your data on a SD card and just pop it somewhere they are not bound to look?
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#71. Backup your documents on Dropbox/GDrive/Whatever (edit: can be you personal server. You can use Truecrypt, and not upload your datas uncrypted. The point is that you must not have the datas on your pc when you pass the border). 2. Wipe your PC. Optional 2.5. Download a bunch of fake personal files. 3. Pass the border. 4. Access Internet. 5. Download your datas.
If you are a political activist, don't backup your files to Dropbox og GDrive, unless it's data you are happy to allow the government to look into. Better to host the files yourself, encrypted with a one-time-pad, for which you have the matching pad with you in a microSD card.
Then, upon reaching your destination, and knowing that no one had access to your random bits in the one-time-pad, download your documents from home, and decrypt it.
No amount of processing power by the NSA will be able to help them get your files, and the only way the bits of your documents pass through the internet, is if you can confirm that the key to decrypt the file hasn't been touched.
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#8Is it possible to encrypt two files together with two different keys? Say I have my class notes from freshman Latin and I have my plans to take over the world. I encrypt them together into a single file "dont_read_super_secret.encrypted" and if I enter "fuzzykitty98" as the key then I see only the notes. But if I enter "downwithfreedom2000" then I see only the diabolical plans. Is that possible?
If anyone builds this app, I'd like a slice of the pie, please :-)
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#9Is it possible to encrypt two files together with two different keys? Say I have my class notes from freshman Latin and I have my plans to take over the world. I encrypt them together into a single file "dont_read_super_secret.encrypted" and if I enter "fuzzykitty98" as the key then I see only the notes. But if I enter "downwithfreedom2000" then I see only the diabolical plans. Is that possible? If anyone builds this…
I believe this is possible with something like Truecrypt.
Re: What happens if authorities seize your laptop?
#10oh so, we must upload custom encrypted files somewhere obscure and scrub our electronics before traveling; then download them again after we reach our destination. and then this border seizure non-sense is really a waste of time.