How to Defeat U.S. Border Agents from Viewing Your Notebook and Your Private Data

[So]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Id be surprised if there were many countries without the power to search your property at the border.

And this makes it okay how? There are plenty of countries where it is okay to rape your wife. That doesn't come close to making it okay.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: moshquerade
Sent this thread to my brother. He's a USBPA.

Why? Are you one of those people that thinks if you don't want them to search, that therefor you must have something to hide? Shame on you. People 200 years ago died so we could be free, and you're *this* careless with their blood. You don't deserve to live in America with an attitude like that.

And while we're at it, you're not hiding any drugs in your vagina are you? Wait you don't want me to search there? Why not, do you have something to hide? If you had nothing to hide you would have no reason for objecting.

Same idea, only difference is it's a laptop not a vagina. Both are our property. Nowadays, one is likely to be searched when crossing the border, the other is not. In the future? People with [uneducated] attitudes like yours will outnumber those who are educated; the government will see the opportunity to take more powers (it's for the war on drugs! really!), and it will be abused, just like in every other nation in history. Or wait, you don't remember that because you were asleep in history class. The idiocy of this generation greatly concerns me. "nope! no potential for abuse! lets just give the government control over every ounce of our lives! they won't abuse it, ever!"

You sound like a presumptuous asshole and total tool.
and DO NOT ever speak of my vagina again in any way, shape, or form. :|

 

[Czar]

Just install raw windows on your laptop and vmware player.
Keep your real machine as a virtual machine file. Store that file somewhere on the ineternet.
Go through customs without that virtual machine on your laptop.
Download the virtual machine when you get the chance.

Yes... this is what many enterprises have sterted to do because Privacy and Freedom is something that doesnt belong in the US anymore.

 

[skyking]

I would not image a spare drive for fear of getting searched or siezed by customs; I do it for fear of drive failure!
It would be no big deal to pop in the base image for travel, so long as it had what you needed.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: nkgreen
Even better, take out your hard drive, fold it in half, and stick it up your ass!

Oh God this made me LOL.

Now, didn't a judge already rule that travelers don't have to give up their drive encryption passwords?

 

[thereds]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: moshquerade
Sent this thread to my brother. He's a USBPA.

Why? Are you one of those people that thinks if you don't want them to search, that therefor you must have something to hide? Shame on you. People 200 years ago died so we could be free, and you're *this* careless with their blood. You don't deserve to live in America with an attitude like that.

And while we're at it, you're not hiding any drugs in your vagina are you? Wait you don't want me to search there? Why not, do you have something to hide? If you had nothing to hide you would have no reason for objecting.

Same idea, only difference is it's a laptop not a vagina. Both are our property. Nowadays, one is likely to be searched when crossing the border, the other is not. In the future? People with [uneducated] attitudes like yours will outnumber those who are educated; the government will see the opportunity to take more powers (it's for the war on drugs! really!), and it will be abused, just like in every other nation in history. Or wait, you don't remember that because you were asleep in history class. The idiocy of this generation greatly concerns me. "nope! no potential for abuse! lets just give the government control over every ounce of our lives! they won't abuse it, ever!"

You sound like a presumptuous asshole and total tool.
and DO NOT ever speak of my vagina again in any way, shape, or form. :|

Too funny. Someone's fanny is upset.

 

[Mardeth]

So if you encrypt the disk and refuse to give the password, can they charge you with something?

 

[Triumph]

So has anyone here actually had them open up your laptop and search your files?

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Mardeth
So if you encrypt the disk and refuse to give the password, can they charge you with something?

who knows, but they can always ruin your day

 

[Blieb]

Just put a KNOPPIX CD in and boot to CD ...

It'll happen so fast maybe they won't realize the OS is running off CD ...

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: moshquerade
Sent this thread to my brother. He's a USBPA.

Why? Are you one of those people that thinks if you don't want them to search, that therefor you must have something to hide? Shame on you. People 200 years ago died so we could be free, and you're *this* careless with their blood. You don't deserve to live in America with an attitude like that.

And while we're at it, you're not hiding any drugs in your vagina are you? Wait you don't want me to search there? Why not, do you have something to hide? If you had nothing to hide you would have no reason for objecting.

Same idea, only difference is it's a laptop not a vagina. Both are our property. Nowadays, one is likely to be searched when crossing the border, the other is not. In the future? People with [uneducated] attitudes like yours will outnumber those who are educated; the government will see the opportunity to take more powers (it's for the war on drugs! really!), and it will be abused, just like in every other nation in history. Or wait, you don't remember that because you were asleep in history class. The idiocy of this generation greatly concerns me. "nope! no potential for abuse! lets just give the government control over every ounce of our lives! they won't abuse it, ever!"

Boys have penises, girls have vaginas.

 

[IEC]

I went through airport security on my way to school with no less than 3 desktop hard drives, a power supply, tons of cables/wires, video card, processor, HSF, etc. Surprisingly, I didn't get extra-searched. Guess putting most of the potentially suspicious-looking parts in the checked luggage helped a lot...

Either that or the TSA scanner was a computer nerd and recognized all the part

 

[pontifex]

wait...they'll know how to image your HD but they won't know how to put into your laptop?

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: moshquerade
Sent this thread to my brother. He's a USBPA.

Why? Are you one of those people that thinks if you don't want them to search, that therefor you must have something to hide? Shame on you. People 200 years ago died so we could be free, and you're *this* careless with their blood. You don't deserve to live in America with an attitude like that.

And while we're at it, you're not hiding any drugs in your vagina are you? Wait you don't want me to search there? Why not, do you have something to hide? If you had nothing to hide you would have no reason for objecting.

Same idea, only difference is it's a laptop not a vagina. Both are our property. Nowadays, one is likely to be searched when crossing the border, the other is not. In the future? People with [uneducated] attitudes like yours will outnumber those who are educated; the government will see the opportunity to take more powers (it's for the war on drugs! really!), and it will be abused, just like in every other nation in history. Or wait, you don't remember that because you were asleep in history class. The idiocy of this generation greatly concerns me. "nope! no potential for abuse! lets just give the government control over every ounce of our lives! they won't abuse it, ever!"

Boys have penises, girls have vaginas.

Text

 

[forumguy]

Originally posted by: pontifex
wait...they'll know how to image your HD but they won't know how to put into your laptop?

Yes, this might be a weak point if my original plan. I would add a safer way is the alternative to have a small spare HDD to put into the notebook prior to arrival at the airport. This HDD will have a pristine copy of Linux on it for the agents to drive around on when the Linux desktop appears. Now the notebook is not conspicously missing an HDD.

But, just guessing, my original method to boot off of flash device or internal SD card (many notebooks now have builtin SD), nobody would notice the notebook was missing the HDD unless one physically found the HDD hatch and opened it and visual verify this fact.

But you don't want to give them any reason to question it. The normal boot up sequence on the flash card would appear like any other normal Linux boot up. We've been talking so much about Linux, you could even have a portable Windows XP boot up to be even less conspicous (there are some utilities to make XP boot from a USB HDD or flash device).

I really doubt (can't say for sure) that the actual border agent is trained to do any IT service or inspections. He/she may just notice odd behaviour on the notebook or the traveler. If you give them reason to, they will then pull you into an office, ask you more questions about the notebook, and possibly confiscate your notebook. Now you will board the plane without your notebook because it will be taken to a lab. They say they will return it to you but I don't know the details.

Do a google search on keywords "us customs image hard drive" to see some stories about this happening to others.

Right now, the legal law is setup so U.S. Customs can search the contents of any of your electronics without any reason. Also the precendent is there for them to confiscate any electronics at their discretion for later detailed analysis in a lab.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: Mardeth
So if you encrypt the disk and refuse to give the password, can they charge you with something?

Well if you want to enter the country you are trying to get into then you will have to do as they say.

 

[Farang]

A better plan would be to develop (or download if it already exists) a mask program that makes everything look like a normal computer unless you type in a password into some random spot (say.. type "123: password" into notepad and you're back to normal).

 

[HardcoreRobot]

u just made someones list

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: CrazyLazy
If they really care what you have at all they can just take the hardrive from your laptop bag and copy it's contents/confiscate it forever. The only way to be truly safe is to store all your data on a flash drive and put it up your butt. Seriously.

Good luck getting past the metal detector with a flash drive up your asshole

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: CrazyLazy
If they really care what you have at all they can just take the hardrive from your laptop bag and copy it's contents/confiscate it forever. The only way to be truly safe is to store all your data on a flash drive and put it up your butt. Seriously.

Good luck getting past the metal detector with a flash drive up your asshole

You don't go through a metal detector with customs.. at least I never have.

 

[forumguy]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: CrazyLazy
If they really care what you have at all they can just take the hardrive from your laptop bag and copy it's contents/confiscate it forever. The only way to be truly safe is to store all your data on a flash drive and put it up your butt. Seriously.

Good luck getting past the metal detector with a flash drive up your asshole

I have to admit, the plan he proposes does seem crazy and a bit lazy too.

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: forumguy
Even if U.S. Customs does find the HDD in my suit case, I would just tell them it?s a spare. I doubt they would have any technical knowledge to put the drive back in.

If they're too stupid to figure out how to screw in a laptop HDD, what makes you think they're adept enough to find anything you've hidden? If they're that stupid, you could put a text file on your desktop and call it "SECRET PASSWORDS FILE - DO NOT OPEN" and they'd probably be too stupid to figure out how to open it.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: forumguy
Right now, the legal law is setup so U.S. Customs can search the contents of any of your electronics without any reason. Also the precendent is there for them to confiscate any electronics at their discretion for later detailed analysis in a lab.

Gee, kinda like fruit, plant material and any animals. DAMN THEM!!! Just who do they think they are!!!

 

[forumguy]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: forumguy
Even if U.S. Customs does find the HDD in my suit case, I would just tell them it?s a spare. I doubt they would have any technical knowledge to put the drive back in.

If they're too stupid to figure out how to screw in a laptop HDD, what makes you think they're adept enough to find anything you've hidden? If they're that stupid, you could put a text file on your desktop and call it "SECRET PASSWORDS FILE - DO NOT OPEN" and they'd probably be too stupid to figure out how to open it.

I didn't call them stupid but putting in a hard drive into any old notebook isn't totally trivial. There could be issues with warranties and such. How do they know if the hard drive is SATA or PATA? How do they know the drive even came with the notebook? It really could just be a spare and the notebook has no internal drive.

Its not entirely a risk free task either. What if they drop the drive or your notebook? Static electricity? I don't think they want to get into the business of getting customs agents (paper pushers) fiddling with personal technology and screwdrivers.

If they really wanted to do it, they'd have to keep a small staff of IT/HelpDesk guys at the border.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux


This is why these searches are useless and simply an inconvenience to law abiding citizens, because the *really* bad guys like terrorists, which measures like this are supposed to help us catch, are simply going to run an SFTP server and SSH to get their *insert terrorist material here* back onto their laptop.

kind of like gun control laws. they only apply and inconvenience the lawful.



ya, i went there