US Courts Consider Legality of Laptop Inspection

ceide2000 writes "The government contends that it is perfectly free to inspect every laptop that enters the country, whether or not there is anything suspicious about the computer or its owner. Rummaging through a computer's hard drive, the government says, is no different from looking through a suitcase. One federal appeals court has agreed, and a second seems ready to follow suit." This story follows up on a story about laptop confiscation at the borders from a few months ago.

new laptops too?

[rossdee]

Are they going to check all the new laptops shipped from China too? Theres probably spyware, malware etc on their hard drives Anyway its gpoing to mean long lines at the security checkpoints at airports as federal employees check out business travellers pron colledtions.

Hand over your corporate laptop :)

[Anonymous Coward]

I will hand over mine :) I work for Microsoft (Seriously) let them fight the battle, thats not my job :)

Re:If you can search a suitcase...

[Anonymous Coward]

I tend to store my data in binary on magnetic platters, where it is completely unreadable by humans using plain sight in a simple search.

New plan for border agents...

[soulsteal]

Folder on desktop named "Kiddie pics?" Check.

Thousands of JPGs within? Check.

All JPGs are hello.jpg? Checkmate.

How I do it...

[WED Fan]

I encode all my dangerous stuff with everyday words and string them into mundane sentances disguised as personal communication.

There, everything you need to construct your own death star is in the line above. Oh, and some extra information is hidden in this line about exhaust ports. Damn, I just realized, my encoding for "exhaust ports" renders as "exhaust ports". Well, back to the drawing board.

Four words:

[Dan East]

thumb drive
encryption
orifice

Not about rights, but rather usefulness

[Random BedHead Ed]

I can see the court's argument, and I suppose it really isn't any different, since you're crossing a border. But what's the point? I've heard there's actually a big network that extends internationally outside the United States (an "inter-net" if you will) that makes data transfers into the US without physical hard disks fairly easy. If this is truly the case, wouldn't anything "contraband" be sent via that? (I mean, assuming it's not too difficult to get an account on this network.)

Johnny Mnemonic

[mattr]

Finally a plausible reason why JM is conceivable.

Re:What are they looking for?

[RingDev]

Or just travel with an old broken laptop and when he asks you to boot it, ask the guy to fix it first. - "but officer, I'm taking it to Best Buy for repair!?"

I find traveling with sex toys in your carry on is a great way to get searches to end quickly.

-Rick

Terminal A?

[delire]

As a heavy terminal user I long since lost interest in running a desktop environment. This has become a problem when I travel internationally, something I do very often.

On two separate occassions I've been asked to boot my machine. On both occassions the security officials became quite disturbed when they saw a text only boot sequence. One asked me to turn the machine off immediately and after 30 minutes I was able to explain what was on my computer in a way they liked. The second incident was worse. Once my laptop had come out of suspend-to-RAM the security guy demanded "Log into your computer please". On seeing a single maximised xterm he became nervous. He held me until an official came down from upstairs, who promptly laughed warmly and said "It's unix. It's OK".

I know a couple of other people that have been in very similar situations.

These days I have a session manager such that I can boot into a clean GNOME desktop should such a situation arise, complete with soothing coastal background image.

The rationale for having me boot my computer apparently was that it may be a bomb, not that my contents might be suspicious. The logic of having me sit in front of them and power on a bomb just to find out if it is, in fact, a bomb still escapes me to this day. Nearly as bizarre as the giant liquids disposal vat at security check: "Please mix your bomb ingredients in this packed airport instead of on the plane. Thankyou."

Re:How I do it...

[netruner]

Don't worry about the exhaust ports - anything they would use in a large scale assault would never be in position to target them. Besides, think of all the labor, parts and rework expense that can be avoided by leaving them as they are.

Re:Terminal A?

[archont]

Damn. If I, for whatever reason, will be forced to visit the US, I'll make a custom boot sequence on my laptop. It'd go something like this: Primer.. Green PETN charge (50g).. Green VX gas pressure.. Green Anti-tampering.. Green Along with a hollywood-stylized bomb counter with some arabic text and a password box "Type password to deactivate". If I wouldn't die from being tasered I'd probably die from laughter.

Re:New plan for border agents...

[Kjella]

Reasonable suspicion that person has explored the possibility of hiding something up his anus? Check.

Rubber glove? Check.

Any way to refuse? Checkmate.

Re:Terminal A?

[meringuoid]

The rationale for having me boot my computer apparently was that it may be a bomb, not that my contents might be suspicious. The logic of having me sit in front of them and power on a bomb just to find out if it is, in fact, a bomb still escapes me to this day.

Simple. If your computer switches on and acts as a computer should, then it's clearly not a bomb. There is absolutely no way to replace the hard drive with a miniature solid-state device running a basic OS install, and the battery with a much smaller one sacrificing battery life for extra room, and use the space saved for a big lump of Semtex to be triggered by echo detonate > /dev/bomb. This is entirely impossible. Which is fortunate, because otherwise they'd have to ban laptops on flights, and that would upset the rich.

Re:But

[Cajun Hell]

Congress, in passing DMCA, legitimized DRM. Sometimes the answer is, "I don't know the key. Ask Columbia Pictures."

Re:How I do it...

[apt142]

It'd cost you parts (box of nails and some chicken wire) and labor (1 extremely under-paid mech droid).

If you skipped lunch, you could probably pay for it.

Good to know this

[Conanymous Award]

Now, next time I visit the States, I know how to be prepared. I will create folders like "goatsePr0n", "My Cunning Plan to Drop a Bomb On George W. Bush", and "Allahu Akbar" . . . and fill them with pictures of Hello Kitty.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Ridiculous, so then one way ALL can NIX

[UseTheSource]

this stupid search mandate is to teach ALL (even the perps) to put the data on an SD or mini-SD card

Next up, cavity searches at customs checkpoints for flash drives hidden on one's person.

You will be killed for your insolence

[thegnu]

Lord Vader does not skip lunch, fool!
*CTHHHHK* ...
*KHHHHH* ...
*CTHHHHK* ...
*KHHHHH*

Now bring me my burrito!

This is going to be worse than ISP tech support

[kjkeefe]

I can see it now...

"Please power on your laptop, sir"

*click*

"Sir, I'm sorry to inform you that this border does not support linux. You will have to return to your place of origin until such time that you install the latest version of Windows Vista Ultimate, Now With Extra Neato Security! (tm)."

/facepalm

My favorite was the time the Linksys tech support person told me that my router doesn't support linux. To which I responded, "The router is RUNNING linux, you know-nothing dweeb!" That call was not very productive...

Re:You will be killed for your insolence

[mfnickster]

"I will have the penne a la arabiata... No, I do not need a tray to kill you. I can kill you without a tray!"