In what was presented to the public this week as a clarification of its privacy policy, the US Dept. of Homeland Security published a paper referring to new guidelines for its immigration and customs agents regarding how they may conduct border searches of travelers’ computers and electronic media. Clarifying the existing law, both sets of guidelines reiterated the department’s policy created during the previous administration: Agents may seize, detain, and/or retain individuals’ PCs and media without having reason to suspect that those people or those machines and devices are connected with a crime.
This is ridiculous. But my advice, smile a lot and tell these idiots (if it is an idiot in which you have to deal with) that you appreciate the fact that they are protecting you from terrorists.
>> Faxon said, on August 28th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
>> So? Don’t take your computer traveling.
Great advice for vacationers — but not practical for businessmen.
Conceivably, a business person could just travel with a USB stick but this can be stolen or confiscated, too.
#26 – noname, I have to travel with a computer. I’d rather give up a NetBook than a MacBook Pro.
>> Jägermeister said, on August 28th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
>> If NSA wants to spend some years worth of super computer time on it, so be it… but you don’t have to hand over your decryption key at the border.
I think you have that right. Some naive people watch CSI and think no technology is beyond the government to break in seconds.
But, to my understanding, large-bit encryption is still very hard for the government to break.
But, you have to keep the encrypting key off your computer, otherwise all they have to do is guess your passphrase which is usually easy.
As a Canadian I can proudly say I will never go to the United States again unless it is necessary for business purposes.
This is just the straw that broke the camels back. Unbelievable.
I travel a lot. Though I have never had my laptop pulled aside and “searched”, it wouldn’t bother me. I always clean and defrag my computer before I cross any international borders. While I do not have a porn collection (been meaning to get one) I do have a lot of confidential info. So I have a partner in smuggling this across the border. My partner, for a small fee, would likely help you, too. My partner’s name is (whispering) Carbonite…
# 31 Greg Allen, Apologies if I was “pissy”, but; ok thanks for the decryption.
If forgot to add to my post in #37,
NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!
Roastedpeanuts – sorry, but you are as likely to have your computer taken by CBP when you return.
ALL governments have the authority to confiscate and/or search anything that crosses the border, this includes rectums and computers. The fact is that it doesn’t happen very often (I had a laptop searched once when entering the UK for no apparent reason.
For an example of CBP misbehavior see http://tinyurl.com/nmnz6f
# 30 Jägermeister,
“If NSA wants to spend some years worth of super computer time on it, so be it…”
Maybe or maybe not, Holding onto the No. 1 spot with 1.105 petaflop/s (quadrillions of floating point operations per second) is the Roadrunner system at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) which was built by IBM and in June 2008 became the first system ever to break the petaflop/s Linpack barrier. It still is one of the most energy efficient systems on the TOP500.
#35 roastedpeanuts said
“As a Canadian I can proudly say I will never go to the United States again unless it is necessary for business purposes.”
Don’t worry. We’ll come to you.
# 41 Somebody, That’s funny.
#40 — noname
Hate to shake your faith in the God-like power of the State, but there are encoding systems which are unbreakable in principle.
Security is only as strong as its weakest link. Having a great encryption program doesn’t protect you if you have have a crappy password. All they have to do is a brute force attack and they will guess right. If they cloned your HDD, then they can mount their copy on a fast machine that does nothing but attempt brute force attacks. Then it is just a matter of time before they succeed.
If you need to bring sensitive data with you, then either encrypt it with a good program AND a good password. Or remote access it through a VPN after you cross the border.
#39 “ALL governments have the authority to confiscate and/or search anything that crosses the border, this includes rectums and computers.”
The government can HAVE my rectum.
Thank you very much.
# 43 Somebody,
Please specify which system you are referring too.
There is a lot to be depressed about in this, of course. But for the me the saddest thing is how very wise the advice given is. Smile, thank the nice man for taking your laptop for no reason. Don’t argue, don’t even let them see you are angry.
Smile, do what our masters tell you, and move along.
I wish that advice wasn’t so needed. It would be nice to live in a country where we had public servants and not masters to be feared.
I suppose that’s why so many people are just fine with this. It’s so much easier to pretend we do have that. Yes, I’ll just internalize the lesson that this is all for my security. Please, take my stuff. Please, treat me like a criminal for no reason. I feel so much safer.
Thank you for your service, kind sir. Shall I smile and bend over?
In Soviet Russia, computer seize airport.
#34 – Greg Allen – But, to my understanding, large-bit encryption is still very hard for the government to break.
It sure is.
#40 – noname – Maybe or maybe not, Holding onto the No. 1 spot with 1.105 petaflop/s (quadrillions of floating point operations per second) is the Roadrunner system at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) which was built by IBM and in June 2008 became the first system ever to break the petaflop/s Linpack barrier. It still is one of the most energy efficient systems on the TOP500.
And this proves what? That they have one giant penis extension… 😉 Seriously… it’s not strong enough to break strong ciphers in a reasonable amount of time. Now, if they had those quantum computers that lurk around the corner… it might give them the edge.
Seriously… NSA wouldn’t go about to decrypt some business mans encrypted files unless they think he’s a threat. And even then, it would take them a heck of a long time to break a 448 bit Blowfish encrypted file.
Just like you don’t want the Government to have free access to your house, you don’t want them free access to your computer.
You have no rights of any kind at a border.
Remember, they hate us for our freedom.
The paranoia of political entities is a sight to behold. Pin ball around between your own borders as much as you like, but try to cross some line on a map (invisible on the ground, mind you) and suddenly you become someone worthy of oversight. As so many of you have said before, “Stupid humans.”
# 51 pfkad,
Yes very true, but is it really arbitrary?
I take it, you have walls and a door on your home?
Do you lock this “arbitrary” boundary and why?
Ok, you say, it’s not the same thing.
Well what do we call people inside that “arbitrary” boundary we call our boarder, Americans.
What do we call people outside this “arbitrary” boundary, Suspicious.
Isn’t there something SUSPICIOUS about an AMERICAN who willing want to leave AMERICA???
Where you not here during the Bush years?? If there is one thing Papa Bush has taught U.S. is we can’t trust anyone not working for the CIA/NSA/FBI/DoD/DoJ/HLS. All people not working CIA/NSA/FBI/DoD/DoJ/HLS are SUSPICIOUS.
Do you work for CIA/NSA/FBI/DoD/DoJ/HLS? If not you are automatically SUSPICIOUS and a person of interest, subject to monitoring of all your movements, communications, financial flow, associations, books you read …
You are very Naive, if you don’t think our government is not doing this.
I was at Ft Meade during the 9/11 attacks. I saw what the NSA started doing more of. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!!
# 49 Jägermeister,
You sir sound like Bill Gates.
Bill Gates in 1981 said “640K is more memory than anyone will ever need”.
Almost 30 year later look where we are at.
No one would have predicted a 1.105 petaflop/s (quadrillions of floating point operations per second) in 1981.
Where will we be in another 5 years?
Yes you can continually encrypt with higher and higher key lengths.
Currently a key length of 80 bits is generally considered the minimum for strong security with symmetric encryption algorithms. 128-bit keys are commonly used.
You want to know what’s really stupid about all this? A micro dote would still get the job done and go unnoticed. Of course you could just use email or stash what you want on line and take an empty machine with you. Heck you could even do remote computing and leave your information elsewhere.
If this was meant to catch criminals/terrorists they are way to many generations behind the curve to catch anyone other than a total novice. I would think this more about a power grab than anything.
#53 – noname
And you sound very ignorant. Did you even type 2^448 combinations into your calculator? Here’s the rough result:
726838724295606890549323807888000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 combinations
Compare that number with your dear little super computer, which does 1105000000000000 operations per second… which is roughly 34871148000000000000000 operations per year (One year = ~365.25, and let’s pretend that this fantastic machine doesn’t have any overhead, and that it can make one guess per operation… which it doesn’t)
So, take the first number and divide it with the second one, and you’ll get the number of years it take to try all combinations… just some 208435559476162611723974159923840000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 years. I hope you’ve got patience.
You need a GIANT leap in computer power to do it.
# 55 Jägermeister,
Yes, but as a rule most people don’t do as they say the do.
Therefore, if I was to stop you and take your computer and give it to one of our computer experts, I am certain I could find a way to charge you with something.
You wouldn’t be the first chump to think he’s smarter then everyone else.
#53 – noname – Bill Gates in 1981 said “640K is more memory than anyone will ever need”.
And btw… Bill Gates never said that.
#56 – noname – if I was to stop you and take your computer and give it to one of our computer experts, I am certain I could find a way to charge you with something.
For having Windows installed?
You wouldn’t be the first chump to think he’s smarter then everyone else.
LOL – Reason doesn’t work on you.
>> noname said, on August 28th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
>> # 31 Greg Allen, Apologies if I was “pissy”, but; ok thanks for the decryption.
Thank you for the apology! I’m not the most civil person on this board so I don’t get too flustered. Still, thanks!
>> Jägermeister said,
>> Seriously… it’s not strong enough to break strong ciphers in a reasonable amount of time.
“reasonable amount of time” is key.
This is why I have a bee-in-my-bonnet about having _all_ our data and communication encrypted.
Even if the government could decrypt the data, it would have to be extremely fast to be useful, considering the massive volume of data flying around.
BTW, I’m not some anti-government militia type.
I think the biggest personal security threat is a running tie between corporations and scammers.
(Well, if you live in China and some places in the ME, the government might be the biggest threat.)
>> Jägermeister said, on August 28th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
>> * Don’t travel abroad with your everyday PC. Use one that’s blank except for the OS and normal apps.
>> * If you need documents that contains secrets (such as business documents), upload them to a server on the net (files being encrypted). Download them when you arrive.
Having traveled to a few oppressive countries, I’ve given this a lot of thought.
The main problem with your system is that some countries are going to “red flag” you for even downloading encrypted data. They use packet sniffers and only-goodness-knows what sets off the alarms.
Hiding it on your hard drive is probably safer.
This is where steganography has always intrigued me. If you could embed your data in a playable video file, that would be cool. The problem, though, is you also have to hide your encryption program.
But, I’ll say it again. The best solution is for ALL data to be encrypted. That way, YOURS won’t get red flagged.