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Securing Your Notebook Against US Customs
Posted by
timothy
on Thu May 15, 2008 12:21 PM
from the best-interests-at-heart dept.
from the best-interests-at-heart dept.
Nethemas the Great points out a piece from Bruce Schneier running in the UK's Guardian newspaper with some tips for international travelers on securing notebook computers for border crossings. A taste of the brief article:
"Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you're entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days. ... Encrypting your entire hard drive, something you should certainly do for security in case your computer is lost or stolen, won't work here. The border agent is likely to start this whole process with a 'please type in your password.' Of course you can refuse, but the agent can search you further, detain you longer, refuse you entry into the country and otherwise ruin your day."
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IT: Inside The Twisted Mind of Bruce Schneier 208 comments
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Bruce Schneier has an essay on the mind of security professionals like himself, and why it's something that can't easily be taught. Many people simply don't see security threats or the potential ways in which things can be abused because they don't intend to abuse them. But security pros, even those who don't abuse what they find, have a different way of looking at things. They always try to figure out all the angles or how someone could beat the system. In one of his examples, Bruce talks about how, after buying one of Uncle Milton's Ant Farms, he was enamored with the idea that they would mail a tube of live ants to anyone you asked them to. Schneier's article was inspired by a University of Washington course in which the professor is attempting to teach the 'security mindset.' Students taking the course have been encouraged to post security reviews on a class blog."
[+]
Hardware: US District Ct. Says Defendant Must Provide Decrypted Data 767 comments
An anonymous reader writes "If you're planning on traveling internationally with a laptop, consider the following: District Court Overturns Magistrate Judge in Fifth Amendment Encryption Case. Laptop searches at the border have been discussed many times previously. This is the case where a man entered the country allegedly carrying pornographic material in an encrypted file on his laptop. He initially cooperated with border agents during the search of the laptop then later decided not to cooperate citing the Fifth Amendment. Last year a magistrate judge ruled that compelling the man to enter his password would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Now in a narrow ruling, US District Judge William K. Sessions III said the man had waived his right against self-incrimination when he initially cooperated with border agents."
sohp notes that "the order is not that he produce the key — just that he provide an unencrypted copy."
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This is why you make sure... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is why you make sure... (Score:5, Funny)
But I think that "1 minute to auto-destruct [bedug.com]" can be a bit too bad.
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Re:This is why you make sure... (Score:5, Funny)
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Mess with them (Score:5, Funny)
Yup (Score:5, Insightful)
The sad thing is that citizens think this idiotic idea of checking laptops at airports serve any kind of law enforcement objective other than generalized panic and further diminishment of democratic values such as the right to privacy.
This is your government fucking people up (and "people" can be foreigners or locals entering the country), attempting to find in informations traces of delincuent activity that, if youre a two bit moron you know you can save it anyhow, in a mostly anonymous fashion on google's, yahoo's or microsoft's servers for free, and any number of services that are available today.
True criminals simply have huge botnets and hidden servers behind the huge pr0n/spam nets and they DO NOT carry incriminating evidence with them and EVEN IF THEY DID, how in hell is a custom's agent going to find them?
I mean, i have a better solution than that of bruce: change your initab so initdefault is 3, make sure that that level does NOT turn on the wifi card or any networking at all, change your shell to ASH (hopefully temporarilly) and let them have the root password, who cares.... good luck, mister customs agent.
A naive suggestion (Score:5, Insightful)
The downsides? You probably won't be able to work in the airplane, but is it worth it now that the Customs are being so much trouble?
My laptop (Score:5, Funny)
It's actually because I need to load a device management driver that overrides the BIOS data for the hard disk, but it may actually be worth it for them to try to fiddle around at the MS-DOS prompt...
Yes it will work. (Score:5, Informative)
So first, they would have to know you even have something encrypted (which is just a guess if they see TrueCrypt installed). Then they'd have to know what/which files was/were encrypted (which can't be determined by examining the file). Then they'd have to ask you to mount the volume and provide the password (at which time you then provide the shadow volume password, which only contains innocuous files).
I can't be the only dummy to figure that out.
Refuse you entry to the contry (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Refuse you entry to the contry (Score:5, Informative)
Or another example is detain you and/or the computer until they can image the drive.
And they can confiscate contraband (your definition may vary).
Ultimately, you have the right to enter the country.
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Corporation Lawyers (Score:5, Interesting)
The IP on my laptop is easily worth 10x more than the value of the laptop itself.
US Customs has always been like this (Score:5, Informative)
I just pretty much walked right through in China - I handed them the entry form (one half of the two part form - the other half you give them when you leave) and they waved me through. Customs in China did not even ask to see my laptop, never mind read files or anything like that.
On returning to the US at Detroit International, I was given the 3rd degree by US Customs agents, and I'm a US Citizen. "How long were you in China?" (as if he couldn't tell by the side-by side entry/departure stamps in my passport) "What were you doing there?" (visiting friends) "What do these friends do for a living?" (A couple of college professors and a financial analyst)
This happened on both of my trips.
And I noticed that they were doing this to EVERYONE, not just me. (The plane had several hundred people on it.) I'd hate to see what they were doing to Chinese citizens entering the US.
I hope they realize that they are going to scare businesses away from the US if they keep this up.
I find it somewhat ironic that the captcha for this post is "undergo".
Simplest solution. Canada (Score:5, Insightful)
Truecrypt + Thumbdrive = Hidden OS (Score:5, Informative)
This post [truecrypt.org] on the Truecrypt forums describes a way to install two OSes, one for show, and one hidden. Unless there is a Truecrypt rescue CD or bootable USB thumbdrive inserted the system will boot to a normal Windows desktop. This method would hold up to any casual sort of inspection, such as those customs agents carry out dozens of times per day. There are a couple of traces that would need to be removed in order to actually have "plausible deniability", but to me not having the questions asked in the first place is preferable to being able to deny one of the potential answers.
It's sad that you might need to do things like this, but there are often technological solutions to social problems.
Re:Dual Boot (Score:5, Informative)
It depends on what, in particular, you're concerned about. As far as I know, they don't currently routinely search laptops, so it'd be speculation to guess at what a routine search they don't do would miss.
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Re:Dual Boot (Score:5, Insightful)
if you are a known individual (person of interest) and you expect to be stopped at the border, don't carry sensitive material with you. Hell, just mail a flash drive.
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Re:Dual Boot (Score:5, Insightful)
If they want to clone your hard drive and disassemble it later, your secondary boot OS is going to stick out. Not that it is unusual for anyone to have more than one OS on a hard drive, but it won't be hidden. Remember, they essentially have physical control of the computer. "They" win. Unfortunately, it comes down to 1) security by obscurity or 2) nothing to hide.
Roll up your sleeves and bend over.
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Depends upon how proficient they are. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Dual Boot (Score:5, Informative)
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Not dual boot; the network IS the computer (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Dual Boot (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Dual Boot (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Dual Boot (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like a small price to pay in order to protect my right to liberty. Just because the government demands access does not mean I have to comply.
Other people have paid a far higher price for liberty ("the full measure of devotion" aka death).
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Re:Not enitrely true... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have been denied access to countries for less than not providing a password. They can pretty much turn you away because they feel like it.
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Re:TrueCrypt (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're going to carry stuff over the border you don't wan't The Man to look at, put it on a thumb drive and attach it to your keys.
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