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Comment by ep103 | Hacker News Reader

hidden partitions, and/or storing all your important data off-device are the two pieces of advice that get suggested the most.

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I would strongly recommend the latter. Hidden partitions are trivial to find.

I recommend one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/MyDigitalSSD-480GB-SuperSpeed-Portabl...

Keep it encrypted and in your pocket.

The bigger problem with hidden partitions is the TSA agent asks you if there is a hidden partition and then if they are able to find out they you have lied you have committed a crime.

> TSA agent asks you ... and then if they are able to find out they you have lied you have committed a crime.

Not sure that's the case: TSA agents are not police or any other law enforcement any more than the gate agent is,and can't make arrests or anything like that. Pretty sure you can say what you like (though please, be polite!).

I once pulled out my phone to photograph the badge of an agent who was particularly obnoxious, not just to me but to others. I planned to fill out the complaint card. He freaked out, told me photography was not allowed, grabbed me by the arm and called for the cop. The cop came over and told him in no uncertain terms to let go of me, that photography is fine, asked me if I got a clear photo and made sure I got a photo of the badge. And handed me a complaint form. I assume he already knew that the TSA guy was a jerk.

> TSA agents are not police or any other law enforcement any more than the gate agent is,and can't make arrests or anything like that. Pretty sure you can say what you like (though please, be polite!).

Aren't TSA agents government, federal, employees?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001?qt-us_code_t...

> Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—

> (1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;

> (2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or

> (3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;

TSA makes you empty your pockets when going through security.

Hm, good point. I forgot about that because I have pre-check.

So maybe one of these instead:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-microSDXC-Adapter-MB-MC256GA-...

Even pocket lint will show up on the Backscatter machines in use in US airports. I know, I've been pulled aside for it.

Does this provide a layer of security outside of say, adding a strong password to your phone and keeping it powered off, assuming my phone's data is encrypted?

Yes. It provides protection against monkey wrench attacks.

https://xkcd.com/538/

Of course the TSA is not so unsubtle as to actually hit you with a wrench, but they have other ways of making your life miserable.

How? They can also plug your usb drive in and say, “unlock it or else wrench...”

Maybe I’m being obtuse but can you explain how it protects against a wrench attack?

Preventing you from boarding your plane for starters

I don’t understand. Can’t they do this whether I have an encrypted phone or an encrypted usb drive?

The idea is to stop them from suspecting that you even have it in your possession.

They're not exactly trivial to find - but they are trivial to use. Why not use one if you are concerned?

> They're not exactly trivial to find

I guess it depends on your definition of "trivial", but I wouldn't want to bet my privacy on the TSA's inability to locate a hidden partition any more than I would want to bet it on their basic honesty and respect for my Constitutional rights.

Most people access email through their phone.

Giving up your phone also means they get a complete copy of your email.

If you use a VPN to access company servers they will swoop up that information as well, and by extension all server side data your VPN credentials Grant access.

They may not be doing all that, but it's only a matter of time and knowledge given their lack of constraints.

Presumably whatever forensic tools they have will easily detect hidden partitions.

The advice I hear for international travelers is disk encryption + FedEx'ing your laptop to its destination.

They dont use tools. For inspection of random phones from non-suspects they just poke around by hand. Only when they find something do they employ actual tools.

Do you have a source on this? Preferably one that will be updated if the policy and practices change?

The only safe assumption is the worst case.

Why would they do this rather than simply image the device? How do you know what their protocol is?

Because opening a phone and looking at the first few texts/emails is faster than imaging. One cannot take a phone and properly image it in the 5-10 minutes they spend with the average phone.

10 minutes is more then enough time to image most devices. Various groups have had stuff like this around for quite a while now. http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp

> easily detect hidden partitions.

Even hidden volumes in encrypted partitions? Has that feature of VeraCrypt been cracked?

https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Hidden%20Volume.html

It's a big bunch of random noise. Of course it's trivially easy to see the drive image is not like other drive images, which is all they're looking for. Go to jail until you hand over the passphrase.

Hidden volumes, though, enable you to place what theoretically appears to be a big bunch of random noise (unless you know the key) in an even bigger bunch of random noise with a legitimate, demonstrable purpose (an encrypted volume.)

Would you seriously attempt to convince US government agents that your 512 GB hard drive contains only a 256 GB filesystem because you're a random noise enthusiast?

It looks like there's 512GB of space committed, but contains less than 256GB of content. There is no protection against the hidden volume being overwritten, if the content in the explicit volume grows too large.

Whole disk encryption should really be standard. No point deleting data if it's encrypted. At that point it's more clear-cut in becoming whether you surrender a key or not, no gray zones.

potentially naive question, but doesn't apple encrypt devices? and will my iphone X be good if i refuse to open it for law enforcement?

Sure, if you remember to disable Face ID before going through the checkpoint. Good luck getting on the plane after refusing to unlock it with a passcode, though.

You can instruct the Secure Enclave to forget your passcode by rapidly pressing the power button 5 times. This inherently disables Face ID and Touch ID.

Just make sure you have Auto Call off in Settings > Emergency SOS, or it'll automatically dial 911.

Also, you can have a digit pin code longer than 6 digits by using a passphrase with only digits.

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