Has the recent push for computer inspections affected you?

[hellfreeze]

Originally posted by: abaez
It's quite obvious hidden partitions and the like are not going to be found. There was a recent case in CA I believe where the inspectors were looking at the laptop booted up and saw a "Pics" folder or something on the desktop and found child porn in it. He was arrested and it eventually ended up being legal.

Anyway, to answer the original question, when I left and came back from Japan in April they asked me to boot up my eee. Luckily it boots like 15 seconds.. one of them was pretty amazed and started asking me questions about it. I think I was unlucky though because I got hit with a random super-inspection both times. I do find it intrusive, but I do not care enough to fight it and have it end up being some big huge deal where they hold me for 2 hours while they figure out what to do.

what's does the super-inspection consist of?

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: hellfreeze

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: hellfreeze
So what happens if your laptop is encrypted? Waterboard you? Haha...

Or how about a Truecrypt hidden partition? And Truecrypt can use dual-layer 256-bit encryption. Good luck getting through THAT.

Is it legal to take that out of the country? I though they only inspected laptops (beyond xraying them) of international travelers. They might not get you for whatever you have encrypted, but they can nail you for exporting encryption technology.

I'd like to see them break my hidden pr0n partition. I swear I wonder why they even bother. If someone's going to export encrypted data it would be much easier to do so by mailing a candle with a micro sd card in it or just carrying it in their luggage. :roll:

hell, could just put a SDHC microsd with all that important info in a phone. Until they start taking that memory card out of phones and digging for data on that, you'd be fine.
crap, this post is now gonna result in phones getting searched too :laugh:

+

 

[Anubis]

nope dont own or use a laptop

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: hellfreeze

Originally posted by: abaez
It's quite obvious hidden partitions and the like are not going to be found. There was a recent case in CA I believe where the inspectors were looking at the laptop booted up and saw a "Pics" folder or something on the desktop and found child porn in it. He was arrested and it eventually ended up being legal.

Anyway, to answer the original question, when I left and came back from Japan in April they asked me to boot up my eee. Luckily it boots like 15 seconds.. one of them was pretty amazed and started asking me questions about it. I think I was unlucky though because I got hit with a random super-inspection both times. I do find it intrusive, but I do not care enough to fight it and have it end up being some big huge deal where they hold me for 2 hours while they figure out what to do.

what's does the super-inspection consist of?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
I hate having to erase my midget pron every time.

Is midget porn illegal?

 

[coldmeat]

Nope. never been on a plane, and never owned a laptop.

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: destrekor
crap, this post is now gonna result in phones getting searched too :laugh:

You're late to the party. Phones are also searched. They will look through the photos on the phones and copy down your contacts/text messages/emails.

 

[MotF Bane]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: hellfreeze
So what happens if your laptop is encrypted? Waterboard you? Haha...

Or how about a Truecrypt hidden partition? And Truecrypt can use dual-layer 256-bit encryption. Good luck getting through THAT.

Is it legal to take that out of the country? I though they only inspected laptops (beyond xraying them) of international travelers. They might not get you for whatever you have encrypted, but they can nail you for exporting encryption technology.

It's free open source, anybody from any country can get the same program.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: abaez
It's quite obvious hidden partitions and the like are not going to be found. There was a recent case in CA I believe where the inspectors were looking at the laptop booted up and saw a "Pics" folder or something on the desktop and found child porn in it. He was arrested and it eventually ended up being legal.

Anyway, to answer the original question, when I left and came back from Japan in April they asked me to boot up my eee. Luckily it boots like 15 seconds.. one of them was pretty amazed and started asking me questions about it. I think I was unlucky though because I got hit with a random super-inspection both times. I do find it intrusive, but I do not care enough to fight it and have it end up being some big huge deal where they hold me for 2 hours while they figure out what to do.

actually they didnt even get that.

they were searching his browesing history and found links that were suspect. they then sent the computer in and found deleted child porn.

 

[effowe]

One of the ways I heard to get around this if you don't want them searching your data is to store it all on a separate partition. Before leaving for the airport image that partition,encrypt it, then upload it online. When you get to your destination you can download your image and have your data. It's a lot of work but will keep your data safe.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

heh I hate this crap... I understand they are looking for contraband, but at what point does it get to be too much? When I have to encrypt/hide my HD just so my data doesn't get searched by the nazi's of the TSA (or boarder patrol in this case), thats a bit TOO much IMO.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: txrandom
What type of illegal stuff are the searching for?

Music bashing Bush?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: MotF Bane

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: hellfreeze
So what happens if your laptop is encrypted? Waterboard you? Haha...

Or how about a Truecrypt hidden partition? And Truecrypt can use dual-layer 256-bit encryption. Good luck getting through THAT.

Is it legal to take that out of the country? I though they only inspected laptops (beyond xraying them) of international travelers. They might not get you for whatever you have encrypted, but they can nail you for exporting encryption technology.

It's free open source, anybody from any country can get the same program.

The ease with which someone in another country can obtain it has nothing to do with whether it is legal to take it from the US to other countries on your computer. There was some controversy over PGP years back over that very issue. The Internet made it impossible to keep it within our country.

I just checked Wikipedia, and it says the restrictions have been relaxed, but there are still 7 countries that you can't export PGP to, along with some individuals and groups.

You should be aware of export restrictions on any of the software on your laptop, just like anything else you carry in your suitcase.

 

[gamepad]

What is the point if this search? What does it have to do with airport security? Is it to search for illegal material? People can just upload it to the internet and delete it from their hard drives...

What if your battery ran out and you lost your AC adapter? They won't be able to inspect it; will the computer be confiscated?

Originally posted by: wetcat007
Just use linux and have it set so it doesn't autostart xwindows, they'll see a login that isn't part of a gui and be baffled and say move along. I've never actually had my computer inspected short of seeing if it powers on at an airport, although last time I traveled outside of the country was in 2006.

I bet the security person will get suspicious and just confiscate a laptop like this, which is discrimination.

WTF?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: gamepad
What is the point if this search? What does it have to do with airport security? Is it to search for illegal material? People can just upload it to the internet and delete it from their hard drives...

What if your battery ran out and you lost your AC adapter? They won't be able to inspect it; will the computer be confiscated?

Originally posted by: wetcat007
Just use linux and have it set so it doesn't autostart xwindows, they'll see a login that isn't part of a gui and be baffled and say move along. I've never actually had my computer inspected short of seeing if it powers on at an airport, although last time I traveled outside of the country was in 2006.

I bet the security person will get suspicious and just confiscate a laptop like this, which is discrimination.

WTF?

It has nothing to do with security, it's a customs search. They search your bag for stuff that you aren't allowed to bring into the country and stuff that you didn't declare on your customs form.

Nice job accusing them of discrimination for something that only happened in wetcat's head.

 

[txrandom]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven

Originally posted by: txrandom
What type of illegal stuff are the searching for?

Music bashing Bush?

Music that bad should be confiscated.

 

[Saga]

Shadow copy the OS with a baseline image of Windows XP that boots if my USB key is not inserted and password is not entered on post. The actual encrypted OS is not visible unless accessed thus, even by kernel level applications. This "fake" WinXP boot takes approximately 2.75GB of space and makes my computer appear to have 117GB free HDD space.

Facist TSA can go ahead and search my blank machine to their hearts content. Even in the unlikely event a TSR application located the encrypted volumes I sincerely doubt they would have the expertise to handle the issue onsite given the circumstances, and given that anything contained is corporate intellectual property and I would lose my job for giving away the password to the encrypted store, I will quite happily refuse.

 

[RichardE]

Originally posted by: hellfreeze

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: hellfreeze


Haha...that's what I use...except I use that Twofish-AES-Serpent mix for my highly classified nekkid photo's of ex's. Who knows, they might be famous one day! :beer:

...Then I get waterboarded...haha :beer:

You know the rules.

:beer:

*clicks furiously*

 

[ajf3]

Read a little about this... gist was that if a password is asked for they require it. If something seems odd they will either image your drive or keep the laptop for awhile.

 

[MixMasterTang]

Out of the 10 guys in my group at work we've been all over the world the last few years including multiple trips to the middle east (UAE and Saudi Arabia), Malaysia and all over Europe and none of us have ever had any issues with extra searches on our laptops. I'm on my 3rd trip to the UAE in a 2 month span and no one has asked to do anything with my laptop besides put it in it's own tray through the x-ray scanner.