Your Laptop is Not Private or Secure at US Customs | Hacker News Reader

Your Laptop is Not Private or Secure at US Customs

associatesmind.com

30 pointsKeith_Lee18 comments

It's become routine for law offices to provide their lawyers with clean installs when they take a laptop across the border. They can then just download the encrypted client files when they arrive at their destination. It's not such a great idea to be crossing the border with encrypted files on your computer like the article suggests. Even if the border guards can't decrypt them, it still makes you look like someone who is, rightly or wrongly, avoiding their scrutiny.

For those of us without an IT department, Dropbox works nicely. Just remember to scrub the folder before you travel.

I agree that this is the best option, but one not always available to everyone.

More like, remember to scrub the entire hard drive before you travel.

Except the US says the border radius covers something like 100 miles inwards from all locations so basically everything is covered.

The EFF's guide to protecting your electronic devices at border crossings:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/11/effs-guide-protecting-...

> Be aware that if you fail to provide a passphrase or decrypt information upon request, there are a number of possible consequences...[t]he agent may detain you at the border.

Encryption should always be accompanied by steganography when dealing with the government if you're concerned about your personal well-being as well. Preferably have an innocent-looking dummy OS that boots up by default.

Does anyone know of a way to boot a different OS based on what BIOS password is entered?

>Does anyone know of a way to boot a different OS based on what BIOS password is entered?

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=hidden-operating-system

Is anyone concerned about travelling with an encrypted OS - but not a shadow one - and upon decryption, being accused of only decrypting a shadow OS? How would you prove that you're not hiding something?

It is impossible to prove either way.

Which might prove to be a concern when Evil Men With Sticks are standing over you, trying to make sure you're not a spy.

Sounds like traveling with a wiped drive is the safest alternative.

Of course, if the government somehow found out you had done such a thing and you had sworn to help them to your fullest or something, they would not hesitate to slap down a variety of other charges on you. Lying is a serious offense.

whys this guy's name in green?

Maybe because it's a new account?

"created 43 mins ago"

Probably so. A valid concern and understandable...safety measure/warning to users that a new account may be spamming.

That's not the case for me, long time lurker. Finally decided to make an account and share some of the stuff I've been writing as I thought it would be of interest to some people. Not an attempt to SEO/spam/other crap.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2434424 Also check out the parent thread.

hmmm. Never realized that before. Thanks!

It's an experiment, may stop happening.

My first impression was that he was a moderator. Green typically means safe and OK, after all.

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