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Security Tips for Traveling with Tech Gear
securitas writes "Many Slashdotters will be traveling during the next week and PC World has an article about how to travel with tech gear with a minimum of security hassles. The Transport Security Administration maintains an allowable and banned items list (PDF) that you might want to check. Make sure that you have fully charged batteries for any tech gifts you received. I've had big hassles with all the tech gear that I routinely carry, especially when combining business trips with a vacation. One security screener even asked me to log in, decrypt and look at files on my notebook's desktop, which was unnecessarily invasive (not to mention against my then-employer's security policy). He settled for viewing the secure login screen 'to make sure it worked.' Any other horror stories out there?"
We carry around all this crap (yes, me included) and require it for our jobs and personal lives. We can't live without it. Right? Laptop, cell phone, Wi-Fi gear, PDA, and related equipment. Are we not borg already?
Discuss...
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
"Try living without the IPod for a few days"
What in the name of Linus Torvalds is this guy thinking? Living without my precious? I don't think so....
Sorry, but some security guy trying to do anything on my computer is an attempt to bypass a security device and in violation of the DMCA. Federal law says I can't do what the federal agent says.
What is horror? I travelled from Durban to Amsterdam on september 15th, 2001, and still have pictures of every security-guard who frisked me on the way. "Make a picture, Sir. Show me its a real camera."
:P
Oddly, security-personell shouldn't let themselves get photographed. That's a violation of security.
I have one of those old clunky IBM craptops. TSA not only made me turn it on, they had me open it up and check the internals.
Luckily, those old IBM models come apart quite readily, just pop the keyboard to access the drives and battery.
So I had to remove the C4 (wrapped in tin to look like a second battery) and the detonator (masquerading as a floppy drive), put them through the metal detector before they'd let me board the plane.
But I must have crossed a wire when I reassembled it all, because somehow the plane actually made it to Albuquerque.
OT, but it is the holiday season...
About a month ago, my brother's family flew to Florida from the UK, and my young niece's beloved teddy bear (travelling as hand baggage - she can't bear to be parted from it) had to go through the X ray machine at a US airport. The security officer in charge joked "How do you want it - medium rare, or done to a crisp?" She gave him a very hard stare...
(Well, it tickled me.)
Using HTML in email is like putting sound effects on your phone calls. Just say <strong>no</strong>.
I had my laptop bluescreen once while navigating the terminal security gauntlet once. I tried explaining to the woman "Uh, it doesn't normally do that" but got a blank stare in return. Almost like a stare of... acceptance. Then I realized she had already been taken by MS.
The funniest encounter was when my chest set off the guy's wand when getting the body scan. He got this totally locked-up look as he tried to come up with some kind of reasonable explaination.
Guy: Uh, did you have... surgery or something... uh... pacemaker?
Me: No, that's my nipple ring.
Guy: (big grin, sign of relief) Oh, OK!
What on earth made you think they had the right, or the authority for that matter, to look at FILES?
:)
You never know if those pesky terrorists found a way to make a boxcutter look like an email to Mother...
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Matches are allowed in hand luggage, though the ban on smoking means the only use you have for them is lighting the explosives in your shoes.
Mod parent up!
We've not had any incidents with bombs in laptops, but we will never let our guard down.
I've never had an incident with a bomb in my morning coffee either, but I check it religiously every time!
Seriously... I wouldn't expect them to stop checking laptops.. but uh.. why focus on them if they've never actually been used as a weapon before? I'd think you could swing the thing around and hit people with it like a (crappy, unbalanced) mace. That seems like a more likely use of a laptop as a weapon than it carrying a bomb. Even putting in some sort of electronic jamming equipment, as unlikely as it is to actually work, seems more likely. I do not think the $7 Rent-a-cops have gotten the hang of this whole "security" thing, yet.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
If a laptop explodes while I'm on my way to Punta Cana in the Domican Republic next week I'm blaming you.
This may have something to do with Profiling that they are trained to do now. As we all know from popular TV shows, mac users are the good guys, and PC laptops equate to evil.
Of course it doesn't help to wear a turban or your "I heart Saddam" button either.
We're not all equal in the eyes of security, we're profiled on sight and a judgement is made.
They'll be sure to swaddle it in cotton wool as they put it in the plane's hold.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Occasionally(!?!) you meet the geek who is SO happy to decribe his devices, that when asked, he offers WAY more information than necessary.
Just stick the goatse.cx guy as the background on your laptop...after seeing that a couple times, these security bozos will learn not to ask.
Yes, screen for obvious threats like firearms and bombs with tools like x-ray machines, dogs, and chemical sniffers. But quit harrassing everyone by trying to find every nail file, screwdriver, pocket knife, etc.
The simple answer is: nightsticks. Issue every adult passenger a nightstick. Anybody tries something funny, there's a hundred people with hard, heavy sticks ready to pound his ass. I also expect that it should improve the service from the stewardesses. The airline could even put their logo on it, and let the passengers keep them as souveniers. It'd be good marketing!
suddenly we provide a very simple and very accesible way for anyone to bring a weapon on board. ANYONE can get a hold of a knife.
:-)
I think that would be the point. In the same way that the public used to provide police services (forming a posse, deputizing "good" citizens temporarily, etc.) a hijacker would have a harder time if everyone was a well armed as he was.
Think of it kind of like those movies where one guy pulls out a gun, and five hundred other people around him pull out their guns and point them at him. He's got a chance in hell of taking out *one*.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
My magic 8 ball went throught X-Ray 3 times...
Why???
Maybe it's because it has a classic round shape bomb look...
It's because guns kill people!
Especially unattended guns locked in relatively secure containers that only the gun-owner is allowed a key to...
Very dangerous...
Why, I saw in the Weekly World News just last week a story about a gun going wonky on a flight in argentina... It just broke the lock on its container somehow, loaded itself and shot a hole right through the floor and out the ceiling of the aircraft...instantly depressurizing the cabin...the plan exploded with the force of the air exiting and 30,000 people were killed as the plane, all of its passengers and its fuel load plummeted right down into the Christmas parade in Buenos Aires
Yes, my friend, guns are dangerous
And we could prevent that with a lot less effort and a lot less difficulty if we simply beefed up the cockpit doors.
Or armed all of the passengers. Imagine what would happen to a terrorist who tried to take over a plane if the pilot could hit a switch and unlock a half-size baseball bat at each seat!
Might make it hard to get the terrorists to trial, though...
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Just don't have these files on your desktop, and you'll be fine:
"Kill President.doc"
"How to Make an Effective C4 Explosive.doc"
"BOX CUTTERS ANONYMOUS.doc"
Might make it hard to get the terrorists to trial, though...
Well, at least the suicide part of their mission will still work...
Sig ?
Just saunter up to the screening station almost butt naked.
Last time I flew, I put *everything* in the plastic bucket and was wearing nothing but my Teva sandals, some sweatshorts, and a really cruddy wife-beater tank top. I looked like I was nearly homeless.
They barely gave me a second look. Fortunately, I had packed *nice* clothes in my carry-on and changed as soon as I could.
I'm looking forward to when Via comes out with a new CPU, and I can get a laptop that uses it.
I'll put a big sticker on it that says "C4 Inside!!!"
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
But how many of them are able to use this theoretical nightstick? There's children, senior citizens, etc. onboard.
You've obviously never had to deal with a 5 year-old on a sugar high, armed with a whiffleball bat. Trust me, with a nightstick, they'd be deadly. And as for the senior citizens, my Grandma could beat a man to death with her handbag. Armed with a nightstick, she'd be like a ninja with a walker and a beehive hairdo.