HOWTO keep your laptop's data out of customs' hands
Bruce Schneier's latest column is a good primer on getting your laptop through US (and other) customs without having your data vacuumed up by the DHS.
Encrypting your entire hard drive, something you should certainly do for security in case your computer is lost or stolen, won't work here. The border agent is likely to start this whole process with a "please type in your password". Of course you can refuse, but the agent can search you further, detain you longer, refuse you entry into the country and otherwise ruin your day.LinkYou're going to have to hide your data. Set a portion of your hard drive to be encrypted with a different key - even if you also encrypt your entire hard drive - and keep your sensitive data there. Lots of programs allow you to do this. I use PGP Disk (from pgp.com). TrueCrypt (truecrypt.org) is also good, and free.
While customs agents might poke around on your laptop, they're unlikely to find the encrypted partition. (You can make the icon invisible, for some added protection.) And if they download the contents of your hard drive to examine later, you won't care.
See also: HOWTO keep your laptop from being searched at the border (it's hard)
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"if they download the contents of your hard drive to examine later, you won't care."
Actually, I would care. They may have a right to inspect to be sure a laptop is working and not a concealed bomb. They may even have a right to inspect for contraband , i.e. stolen secrets. But if they want to seize my property, my bits, they need at least a warrant.
Of course I live in a fantasy land where I have an inherent right to privacy.
Personally, if I was a terrorist, and had data to hide, I'd encode it, dump it on a 4-8 GB micro SD and stuff it in my collar stays, or any small pocket or orifice (a pocket would be safer). Such a card is sufficiently small and non metallic to readily hide in so many locations that it would be impossible to find with a cursory search.
So why are we searching in obvious places? Oh, right, security theater and intimidation of citizens.
Also, a nice update from Jennifer Granick 2 days later...
EFF Answers Your Questions About Border Searches:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/border-search-answers
P.S. You have no rights at the border.
Actually I do have one border right. The right to never go there.
Come to think of it, if I had to potentially secure my laptop from border officials' prying, in addition to the encryption of drives and whatnot, why not just set up your laptop to boot to a command prompt in Linux. Log in with an account with no sudo priveleges and let them go wild. Chances are they won't even know what to do.
There is a very easy fix - set-up your Laptop to boot from USB and never touch the laptop drive. Most current Laptops will allow this without a problem and your laptop drive will be perfectly clean.
Not only that, forget the laptop and just take the USB stick with you. You can plug it into almost any PC / Laptop (with a generic FreeBSD / Linux kernel on the USB drive) and take your 'system' with you in your pocket. 16 and 32GB drives are much cheaper than a laptop :]
There is one down side however, the boot time is a bit longer - but if you are worried about your data, a longer boot up is a minor issue.
But I'm not worried about my data. I'm worried about my privacy rights. I don't do illegal crap, all I really have is personal info and my browsing history. Which won't include anything I'd be ashamed of.
But I am worried that once you let them in a little soon the whole camel is in your tent.
Noen, I agree. Every time I see an article about how to protect your laptop data (and like you, I have nothing there that is proprietary or that I'm ashamed of), I just feel like - all very well and good, but what business do border guards have looking into my fucking laptop?
Next there will be random anal probes, and many will quietly bend over, in the name of "security".
Or in the name of fun.
I've been mail scammed once (mailbox break-in) and credit card scammed twice (neither time online.) I'm happy to keep my data private.
Antin - in the name of fun for some of us anyways. :)
Maybe I wasn't very clear on my point, of course I know that everyone has data that needs to be secure (credit card, financial, medical, etc.). But it just sucks that in addition to having to maintain security against thieves and neer do wells, you also have to worry about cops, security guards and fascist airport goons.
Keep nothing on your hard drive but common applications, use obscure interfaces, write an app that randomly changes file extensions of critical data when your password is not entered, make a boot disc or storage disc out of a memory card from your camera or smart phone and keep it in while you are going through customs, use USB drives, store private data in email accounts or on your home server/network, set all of the file rules to password protected non-copy status, run multiple operating systems and set up the default as a dummy on Ubuntu...
Let's face it, the people doing these searches are likely to be about as computer literate as my grandparents, any subterfuge will likely work.
They can have a look at my private data when they start training dogs to smell ASCII.
Having your laptop looked at during border crossing isn't a huge deal UNLESS
a. you do have data you're not suppose to have AND that can be recognized OR
b. you have data that you are allowed to have BUT it looks suspicious
So, the real question is: what do you look at everyday that someone else might mistake for something dangerous?
Haesae - I respectfully disagree. I think having your laptop (I mean its contents) inspected at the border is a huge deal. It seems to me (speaking of the US anyway) that it would be a violation of the 4th amendment. If someone is carrying around a bunch of hand or type-written manuscripts, is it ok for any guard to stop the person (and everyone else in line behind) to randomly start reading, just because he/she feels like it?
in the name of fun for some of us anyways.
You don't have to be gay to explore panerogeny.
How do I keep my laptop data out of US Customs hands? Simple: I don't travel to the US anymore. Not for business, not for pleasure. Not after the way my husband and I were treated by the freaks at the border the last time we tried to cross together as a family (we're both male.) To this outsider, the US appears to have become a paranoid, brutal, nasty, thuggish, selfish, war-loving police state little different from China or Russia except for wealth, and it seems like a majority of the people who live there either don't particularly care as long as they get their SUVs and big screen HDTVs and McMansions, or they actually PREFER things the way they are. The way border guards act towards visitors is just one manifestation of the awful sickness permeating the American civilization, and saying it's always been that way is a repulsive lie.
it seems like a majority of the people who live there either don't particularly care
Americans don't seem to travel abroad as much as other nationalities. I think that we just don't have much idea of what other people go through. It's similar to the fact that we've experienced almost no foreign aggression on US soil, so war holds no grip on our consciousness. Most countries have been invaded in living memory, but not us.
If you're a Mac user you can always use Disk Utility to create an unobtrusively named new blank disk image that is encrypted with AES. Very secure (use a good password), very easy to mount and use. Once you create it, double click it, enter your password then use it as though it was an attached hard drive. I'm sure there is something equally effective for the PC.
A friend of mine looked into this a couple of weeks ago, and his solution is rather creative and in a similar vane to Hayduke's (comment #17). His laptop runs linux, so he created another partition that is only mounted when a specific USB flash drive is attached to his machine. Since, it is not listed in fstab, the only way to find it without the usb key is to look at the partition table. Also, he has it mount on his home directory, so anyone looking at his home directory without the hidden partition mounted just sees some rather inoccuous documents.
Use a micro SD card to store really sensitive data. They are so small you could sew them into the inside of your shirt cuff or the cuff of your jeans. Those you could hide just about anywhere.
@19 Hellhead
Yep, or just keep it in your phone (most modern phones accept micro SD cards now). I could ostensibly carry my OS, all my important files, and an incredible quantity of photographs of public places... all in the side of my LG.
The irony of the terrorism security farce is the complete lack of effectiveness it is capable of. I would venture to guess that there aren't more than 1 in 1,00,000 rent-a-cop thugs capable of comprehending that a laptop is booting off a HDHC card rather than a hard drive, or spotting extra OS's on a drive. Even with the current linux boot disks out there, I don't know of one that could present a UI splash screen simply enough to alert a boarder patrol officer that there are state secrets on Random Guy's laptop.
I've heard that portions of the IT community are pushing harf for internet based applications and data storage. Meaning, you use your pc as an access device, a terminal. You can wipe your ram off the flash drive after each connection to the net. This is not an ideal solution for those that want to work when they don't have access to the web, but it's an option for those who do not want to share their private information.
My laptop boots straight into Windows, and that instance of Windows looks boring. No encryption apps in sight.
If I boot with my USB key, I'm prompted for a passphrase that unlocks the encrypted partitions, and it boots into Linux, which is what I actually use.