TSA inventing new ways to piss me off

[chronovore]

Homeland Security: We can seize laptops for an indefinite period | The Iconoclast - politics, law, and technology - CNET News.com: (via LifeHacker)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has concocted a remarkable new policy: It reserves the right to seize for an indefinite period of time laptops taken across the border.

A pair of DHS policies from last month say that customs agents can routinely--as a matter of course--seize, make copies of, and "analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, re-enter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States." (See policy No. 1 and No. 2.)

DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating "copyright or trademark laws." (Readers: Are you sure your iPod and laptop have absolutely no illicitly downloaded songs? You might be guilty of a felony.)

This is a disturbing new policy, and should convince anyone taking a laptop across a border to use encryption to thwart DHS snoops. Encrypt your laptop, with full disk encryption if possible, and power it down before you go through customs.

Here's a guide to customs-proofing your laptop that we published in March.

It's true that any reasonable person would probably agree that Customs agents should be able to inspect travelers' bags for contraband. But seizing a laptop and copying its hard drive is uniquely invasive--and should only be done if there's a good reason.

Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, called the DHS policies "truly alarming" and told the Washington Post that he plans to introduce a bill that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches.

But unless Congress changes the law, DHS may be able to get away with its new rules. A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that an in-depth analysis of a laptop's hard drive using the EnCase forensics software "was permissible without probable cause or a warrant under the border search doctrine." (full article at initial link)

Comments

[evil-genius.livejournal.com]

They might seize my laptop. But fat chance they have of find anything on it. The entire main drive sits behind 256 bit AES encryption. Anything even remotely sensitive sits behind a further the triple threat AES-Twofish-Serpent. Both have unique massive nonsensical passwords. While the later also uses an additional pass file.

They might seize it. But it would take most of the computers on the east coast several thousand years to get at any of my data.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Which, arguably, would cause them to hang onto it longer than if they'd been able to scan it at a glance. Which, I should add, I am NOT advocating. I'm not saying "Just show them!" because I think we're in an unbalanced, power-hungry, unhealthy police state with little-or-no accountability.

I've done nothing wrong, have no outstanding crimes, not even a parking ticket, but I still get nervous whenever I try to clear customs in a country.

[evil-genius.livejournal.com]

It's a company laptop. I keep full backups. Having it seized, even permanently, would be of little personal consequence. I'd have my rig back online and fully loaded by then end of the following business day. There's also a fairly good chance my company would sue. (It's nice being a worker bee in a hive of 25,000. We've gots lot of lawyers)