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?"

Comments

Without the iPod???????

[kantai]

"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....

Nope. DMCA..

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Booting a laptop

[stephens_domain]

Showing that it works does not really mean much. How much stuff could you pack into a laptop and still have it boot once? Take out the CD/DVD bay, or take out the hard drive and boot from a live CD, hollow out the PC card slot. Make a false battery and tell the agent your battery is dead so you have to use AC, etc.

Re:Booting a laptop

[Kierthos]

From Wikipedia:

He was killed by the Israeli Shin Bet in 1996 following a massive manhunt. They were able to compromise one of Ayyash's fellow Hamas members, who gave him a cell phone full of explosives. When they confirmed Ayyash was using it, the Shin Bet detonated it, killing him instantly.

Now, supposedly, the cell phone worked as well, and the last call he got on it was from the head of the Shin Bet, who told him "Goodbye."

Kierthos

Re:Booting a laptop

[swillden]

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...

Don't take your laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most important, leave the laptop at home unless somebody's paying you to take it along--borrow friends' computers or stop in any cybercafe if you feel compelled to check your e-mail.

Oh yeah, that's exactly why I bought a laptop: so that I can pay a cybercafe to use a computer on the road.

What the?

[OS24Ever]

You allowed someone to look at secure FILES on your system? What on earth made you think they had the right, or the authority for that matter, to look at FILES? They can physically inspect your system, but they do not have any right to search your laptops electronic contents.

I've flown about 85 - 90 times this year from a base out of either Kansas City International, or Raleigh Durham International.

I've flown to Dallas, San Francisco, Oakland, NYC Laguardia, Des Moines, IA, Orlando, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, and other cities and have carried even two laptops, a cell phone/pda, a iPod, and between 3 - 7 paper back books.

At the most I've had my bag physically searched because the x-ray guy couldn't see something quite right because a few of my chargers were laying weird. I've even been told what caught them up a few times.

I've carried a backpak full of camera equipment (digital SLR body, three lenses, battery charger, extra batteries, video camera, two microdrives, and a Powerbook G4) through multiple times on vacation and never had a single concern.

If a screener *ever* asked to see the contents of my laptop they'd get the verbal equivalent of a polite middle finger. There is *no* way any TSA screener needs to look at the contents of anything I have that is beyond a cursory physical examination.

Re:What the?

[dr_dank]

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... :)

Re:What the?

[Stradenko]

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.

Laptop theft at airports...

[i.r.id10t]

... Apparently one of the common methods is to use a shill to slip in before you so your laptop is sitting at the other end of the x-ray machine while you are still waiting to clear. Thief then takes off with it.

Last trip thru LAX, one of the "security" drones tried to get me to wait about 100 feet away from my work supplied laptop and other possessions, while he re-examined my shoes. Told him it wasn't gonna happen. He eventually agreed to me toting all my crap over, and then checking my shoes.

Honestly, this whole security thing wouldn't bother me too much if it was done with any common sense - and if it actually made me feel a little more secure.

Re:I call bullshit on this:

[ayahner]

Gonna have to say, the author of this one might have been geeking it up with the screener.

Occasionally(!?!) you meet the geek who is SO happy to decribe his devices, that when asked, he offers WAY more information than necessary.

"Uh, can you turn it on, please?"
"Sure, buddy, but everything is 128-bit encrypted, and I need my secure session login keychain to get at all my mp3s I Kazaa-ed last week."
With a puzzled expression, and shakily asks, "Uh, can you un-encrypt it, please?"
"You mean DE-crypt it. In the business, we say DE-crypt. Lotta laymen say un-encrypt, but you really should say DE-crypt."
"Uh, the business?"

"Yeah!" With a big 34 year old pimply smile.

"I'm in tech support."