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Home Front: WoT
Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border
2008-08-03
Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.
But not until the end of the article does the Post reporter bother to tell you that the Ninth Circus Court has said that it's legal. So Feingold is just bleating again.
DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter.
Posted by:Steve White

#19  With instant cracker thumbdrives now available, the last place I would put anything incriminating or sensitive would be on a computer.

The best bet is to upload heavily encrypted steganographic files to some ordinary sites open directory, where they will sit unnoticed until you visit the web site and select a picture not linked from their page. You will then download the picture to your buffer, rip the data and recombine it to the hidden source.

You can easily get tremendously better encryption than AES, and if you blend it into separate stenographic files there is no practical way to decrypt it unless you get all the pieces.

It sounds a lot harder than it is.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-08-03 23:51  

#18  LOL, dunno ;-)
Posted by: Frank G   2008-08-03 17:47  

#17  Frank, everyone except you gets a smaller mobile phone when they upgrade. Why?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2008-08-03 17:45  

#16  I do note that few people ask to borrow my phone though.....
Posted by: Frank G   2008-08-03 17:10  

#15  that's why I carry my cell phone and USB stick in a body cavity at all border entries. Plus, I kinda like it, but that's just me
Posted by: Frank G   2008-08-03 17:10  

#14   if they will start confiscating Blackberries or highly capable mobile phones. Most of them have a microSD port that can be used to hold the vital data. My reading of the original & similar articles indicates the border agents may hold/confiscate anything of that nature, including basic cellphones, much less anything more capable than that.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418    2008-08-03 17:08  

#13  Sory guys , I just loaded Opera and don't quite have the hang of it yet.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-08-03 16:41  

#12  OK I'm an evil minded person, if I knew my laptop was going to be stolen I'd put a bit of plastique in it and remove the battery.
Whatever idiot puts a battery in it, gets a facefull of plastic and metal shrapnel.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-08-03 16:33  

#11  OK I'm an evil minded person, if I knew my laptop was going to be stolen I'd put a bit of plastique in it and remove the battery.
Whatever idiot puts a battery in it, gets a facefull of plastic and metal shrapnel.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-08-03 16:30  

#10  OK I'm an evil minded person, if I knew my laptop was going to be stolen I'd put a bit of plastique in it and remove the battery.
Whatever idiot puts a battery in it, gets a facefull of plastic and metal shrapnel.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-08-03 16:28  

#9  Gott wonder if they will start confiscating Blackberries or highly capable mobile phones. Most of them have a microSD port that can be used to hold the vital data.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-08-03 16:22  

#8   So the basic consensus to travel with a disposable laptop & keep your data in a separate, hard-to-identify object on your person?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2008-08-03 13:58  

#7  SD-RAM uses the same interface that IDE drives do (except it's shrunk).

You can buy an expander and plug them straight into the computer.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2008-08-03 13:03  

#6  I just bought an 8 gig Sandisk Cruzer for less than $40 that is only about an inch long when retracted.

You can do even better than that, you can get an 8 gig microSD card that are as big as your little fingernail and they come with an adapter. I've got one that boots Linux with a USB card reader. $50.00 not counting the USB reader.
Posted by: Grease Dark Lord of the Algonquins9226   2008-08-03 12:33  

#5  I just bought an 8 gig Sandisk Cruzer for less than $40 that is only about an inch long when retracted. That would carry a lot of illicit info that they would never find if hidden in by bags or on my person. I doubt it has enough metal to set off a detector or a wand. They are pissing in the wind.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-08-03 11:58  

#4  I don't like the rough way laptops are treated by TSA let alone customs. This, outside of what is mention in this article.
There is a business plan lurking somewhere with rental laptops when you reach a destination and personality (OS and files) on a flash key. Perhaps a Virtual Machine (VM) and laptops that support a VM on a flashkey.
Then you only need to carry the flash key as a keybob or earing or ring or something.
Posted by: 3dc   2008-08-03 11:51  

#3  If handled badly then this will kill trade with the states.

The customs officials should sign an NDA on behalf of the US Government.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2008-08-03 09:48  

#2  US Customs are not the only ones who do this. Quite a few foreign countries (Third World) will also detain laptops. Excuses vary, or they don't even bother with excuses, or with returning the detained computers (or other high tech goodies.)
Posted by: Glenmore   2008-08-03 09:40  

#1  Have a subfile labeled Recent Messages. Put in 'Dan Rathered' messages between Pelosi and Harry with FARC and Iranian official. Customs will quietly return your machines unharmed. Now put in My Images files labeled "Edwards Love Child" and they'll disappear.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-08-03 08:50  

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