Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Tips For Taking Your Laptop Into and Out of the US?

Posted by timothy on from the hug-a-tsa-agent-with-fervor-and-passion dept.

casualsax3 writes "I'm going to be taking a week long round trip from NYC to Puerto Vallarta Mexico sometime next month, and I was planning on taking my laptop with me. I'll probably want to rip a few movies and albums to the drive in order to keep busy on the flight. More important though, is that I'm also going to be taking pictures while I'm there, and storing them on the laptop. With everything in the news, I'm concerned that I'll have to show someone around the internals of my laptop coming back into the US. The pictures are potentially what upsets me the most, as I feel it's an incredible violation of my privacy. Do I actually need to worry about this? If so, should I go about hiding everything? I've heard good things about Truecrypt. Is it worth looking into or am I being overly paranoid?"

31 of 940 comments (clear)

  1. If you're that worried... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...encrypt it. Full disk encryption is relatively cheap, easy, and unobtrusive.

    You gave one such example in your post.

    But uh, mind if I ask: exactly what kind of pictures are you planning on taking on your vacation? ;-)

    1. Re:If you're that worried... by vwjeff · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Make sure you have a backup of the pictures before you enter the US. Secure online storage is cheap. You can refuse to give them the password but they can take your laptop for "analysis."

    2. Re:If you're that worried... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But uh, mind if I ask: exactly what kind of pictures are you planning on taking on your vacation? ;-)

      It shouldn't matter what kind of pictures he takes. It is none of their business.

    3. Re:If you're that worried... by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Truecrypt would not help: If they really wanted to see your content they could ask you to show it to them or alternatively confiscate your laptop and decrypt it themselves.

      Truecrypt provides plausible deniability - the capability to create a hidden encrypted volume within another encrypted volume, thereby allowing you to grant access to unimportant/dummy data when a password is asked for without the attacker knowing additional information even exists.

      As for the US government just decrypting the colume themselves, as far as I know they simply don't have that capability. If your boss knows otherwise or has knowledge of ways to defeat Truecrypt's plausible deniability then (s)he should provide some kind of evidence to back that up, otherwise this just sounds like uninformed guesswork or pure tinfoil-hattery.

      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    4. Re:If you're that worried... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, they cannot "sieze your laptop" if you don't give them the encryption password; a strict reading of the policy is that the laptop can be seized in any event, encryption or no. There is NO REQUIREMENT to provide anyone with an encryption password under any circumstances. The existing policy doesn't even speak to encryption. In fact, leading privacy advocates recommend encryption as the most deisrable solution.

      You guys do realize that customs agents at the border have ALWAYS had the right -- without a warrant -- to perform reasonable search and inspection of all physical objects and persons coming into the United States; this policy was designed to expand those longstanding inspection rights to electronic data.

      In its current state, it's a poorly written policy. The fact is, no one is going to look at the contents of your laptop, much less be seizing it. (Do you guys actually travel internationally?)

    5. Re:If you're that worried... by MBGMorden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Truecrypt provides plausible deniability - the capability to create a hidden encrypted volume within another encrypted volume, thereby allowing you to grant access to unimportant/dummy data when a password is asked for without the attacker knowing additional information even exists.

      Well, there's that, and the fact that no file can be positively identified to be a Truecrypt volume. Until you you give a password it just appears to be random data. High entropy random data, but the guy at the border is looking for a 5 minutes spree tops - I seriously doubt he knows what entropy is let alone enough to check for it.

      If you're that worried create a volume with nearly same size as your system RAM, keep it in a directory with some source code (even write a stupid program that will crash if you want) and just name it "core" or "core.dumped". If asked about it tell them when you were testing your program (that does whatever you want to maekup) it crashed and dumped memory to file. It's probably just corrupted nonsense . . .

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    6. Re:If you're that worried... by OmegaBlac · · Score: 5, Informative

      If your laptop gets seized and searched, and they discover it's encrypted, couldn't they just order you to give them access to the files?

      No, they cannot order you to provide the keys to decrypt or force you to decrypt the hard drive/files yourself. There was a recent case (I think it was United States v. Boucher) regarding this issue, but here in the U.S. (for the time being) you are not required to aid law enforcement officials in essentially self-incriminate yourself. In the U.K. you are required to hand over your encryption keys if law enforcement demands it, I think--someone correct me if I am wrong there.

    7. Re:If you're that worried... by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny

      It shouldn't matter what kind of pictures he takes. It is none of their business.

      I think he was more concerned about our amusement than their business.

    8. Re:If you're that worried... by paulatz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think it is much easier to bring 2 USB keys to Mexico, move the data on them and send them home via regular mail, separately.

      --
      this post contain no useful information, no need to mod it down
    9. Re:If you're that worried... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Extending off of this idea, My solution for travel to the US was to remove the hard drive, leave it at home, and run my laptop off of an ubuntu livecd. Any data I wanted to keep was stored on SD cards purchased in the US.

    10. Re:If you're that worried... by nahdude812 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually it was recently demonstrated that you can positively identify a hidden volume exists within a TrueCrypt volume, defeating plausible deniability. In addition, it was also recently demonstrated that regardless of the encryption algorithm used, it's possible to get a silhouette of high contrast encrypted images.

      So if they really wanted, they could identify the hidden volume exists, then apply this second technique to identify that images exist on it. To border agents, this is probably tantamount to admitting on the spot that you're smuggling kiddy porn across the border, and you may find that it's more than your laptop which is detained.

      Your best protection is to transfer the images separately from your laptop. Store them on Amazon S3 with a tool such as JungleDisk, and download them when you get home (this is a good idea in case something damages your laptop while traveling too).

      --
      Slay a dragon... over lunch!
    11. Re:If you're that worried... by The+Faywood+Assassin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually its even easier than that.

      If you can, set the BIOS to set the CF or SD card slot as the first boot device, and the hard drive as the second.

      Thus, without a card in the slot during boot up, you get a normal Windows session, with the card in you get a Linux session.

      Also, if the Linux session does not auto mount the windows disk, then the simpleton inspecting your computer will never see your files on the hard drive.

      Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux are perfect for this

      Beny

      --

      "I'm a humble person really,

      I'm actually much greater than I think I am"

  2. Let them try to decrypt it. by haeger · · Score: 5, Funny

    Put your files on a few small USB-sticks, or on your home server (for encrypted retrieval once you're in the country). Bring a Live-CD to boot from and then "cat /dev/random > /dev/sda".
    Make sure to grow a big beard, learn a few arabic phrases and quote Allah to the security guard in customs.

    Then let them have a crack at decrypting your "encrypted" drive.

    Just be sure to say "Just kidding" so they don't ship you off to Guantanamo.

    .haeger

    --
    You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
  3. Best defense by C10H14N2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is a good offense.

    If you're offended by having your privacy invaded, just make it horribly offensive for the invader as well.

    With the right accessorizing and appropriate leather:latex:chainmail ratio, you can ensure even the most intrepid airport screener will breeze you through in record time.

    Oh...and, yes, Truecrypt is terrific, but not nearly as fun.

    1. Re:Best defense by fr4nk · · Score: 5, Funny

      ... or just use the goatse pic as a wallpaper.

  4. circumvention by Draque · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An ounce of circumvention is worth a pound of countermeasures. Don't store them on the laptop at all. Store the pictures you're taking online and you'll be able to access them from anywhere. Border patrol can't find something on your computer when it's not there. Even if that's not feasible 100% of the time, you could still make a temporary archive online while removing them from your computer. If even that has you feeling paranoid, you could always burn the files to DVD, wipe them from your computer, and stow the DVD.

  5. Re:Put the dunce cap away by HBI · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Only children think in terms of the worst things that could happen to them. Every day, when I leave my house, I could get run over by a bus. I could get ass raped in a jail after being unfairly imprisoned by a cop for a crime I didn't commit. My house could be robbed. My person could be robbed. My car could have a molotov cocktail thrown at it. I could catch some nasty disease from a toilet seat.

    Note I spend about zero time thinking about these things because the chances of them happening to me are about nil. Ditto having my laptop searched. What are they going to find, my porn stash? WTF do I care, really. It's not worth a moment of my life to worry about.

    I retort: Maybe you should grow up and worry about things that are important, like where your next meal is coming from. I hear that it's growing fashionable now.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  6. Re:Boot to BSoD by jbeaupre · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or have it "crash" on boot and you'll be sent along your way with a sympathetic shrug.

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  7. Re:Put the tinfoil hat away by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You'd think that, but there have been stories recently about that not being the case.

    There are "stories" about kidnapping of children, but I still let my children play outside. There are "stories" of serial killers, but I still walk in the city. There are "stories" of school shootings, but I still let my kids go to public school.

    What's your point?

    I can find a "story" about anything. That doesn't mean that it's common or that special precautions need to be taken.

    --
    Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
  8. Just returned from Europe with no issues by HeWhoMustNotBeNamed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We flew into Munich, traveled by Train to Austria and returned to the US via Munich. We had no issues other than US Customs wanted to review the food items we were importing and declared. We knew that when we bought the Austrian chocolate and it took maybe an extra 5 minutes to go through the Agriculture lane for customs.

    I did burn a DVD of my pictures as a backup, more in case the laptop was stollen than if US Customs wanted to retain the laptop.

    Get over the paranoia and go see the world.

    1. Re:Just returned from Europe with no issues by bornwaysouth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Deary, deary me. A sane voice. You really don't belong here. Your lack of problems came about because you acted on a normal fashion. Read the posts. These guys are off on another planet.

      An analogy.
      Imagine that you want to walk down a street at night, which just happens to have a lot of coke dealers on it. You have your own *private* reasons for being there. Cop patrols cruise by. The advice given by the other posts is wonderfully technical. The equivalent is. On seeing a cop car, scuttle into a doorway. Wear patterned clothing that allows you to blend into doorways. Wear rubber gloves and be prepared to drop any stash to allow plausible deniability. Have an artificial third leg. In short, wave a large neon sign saying "Look at me."

      There is an observation in the science press that terrorists seem to be more likely to be geeks than non-geeks. From the posts here, I'd say they are simply more likely to be caught.

  9. Best Suggestion by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now that you've escaped, why bother tunneling your way back into the Stalag^H^H^H^H^H^H Soviet^H^H^H^H^H^H U.S.?

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  10. Seriously by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Regular people, just doing ordinary legal business now need to worry about this?

    What the fuck is up?

    Doesn't this read more like an item that one would have expected to read - historically - by someone concerned about a visit to the Soviet Union, East Germany or Argentina? Looks like the Soviets didn't lose the cold war. There are just 1st and second runners-up, with both losers in a 15 year period, no? I mean, you fuckers used to have LAWS. You used to have a Constitutional validation of basic individual rights! But, I guess there are more important things to a nation, than the consent of the governed.

    In America, Soviet Union becomes YOU! You fucked up, America. And now you no longer exist in any meaningful context. The only single thing that defines you as a coherent entity within your borders is the way in which you are taxed - without representation.

    I don't know if I am angry or sad. But it is sad.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
    1. Re:Seriously by Eternauta3k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Doesn't this read more like an item that one would have expected to read - historically - by someone concerned about a visit to the Soviet Union, East Germany or Argentina?

      Regardless of the truth in that statement, I never heard of Argentina being used as an example of an intrusive country. The checks they do at customs are laughable.

      --
      Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
    2. Re:Seriously by klausner · · Score: 5, Informative

      You aren't paranoid if you really have enemies.

      While having someone look at my vacation pictures wouldn't especially bother me, having some Homeland Security dweeb who can't find the power switch impound my PC because he thinks that maybe, possibly, there is a chance there is something questionable scares the hell out of me.

      Customs (and others?) can seize laptops, disks, media, etc, FOR NO REASON AT ALL, and there is little or no legal recourse to get the stuff back. If that's not worth being paranoid over....

    3. Re:Seriously by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 5, Informative

      because you didn't visit argentina during late 70s or early 80s when our neighbors (well, we too, and ALL the rest of south america) were under a ruthless dictatorship that used to load anyone they didn't like into C-130s and drop them in the midle of the ocean.

      BTW, that regime ? sponsored by the US, with CIA's planning. as were all the dictatorships in the continent.

      --
      What ? Me, worry ?
    4. Re:Seriously by dbIII · · Score: 5, Insightful
      One lesson from an incredibly expensive joke of a "terrorist" case in Australia is that a photograph of a landmark is proof you are going to blow it up. Be careful with those holiday snapshots!

      The outcome was that the case was thrown out due to a complete lack of evidence apart from a very distant family relationship with another suspect in the UK, so beware, if Kevin Bacon does something you're screwed. It really did look like a show trial set up for an election year so that Australia could finally show the anti-terror laws were working.

      To be practical and serious I would say leave a copy of everything you really want to keep with somebody before you fly just so you can get it back if the laptop is mishandled or held up in any way, or even if you just drop the thing yourself.

  11. Easy! by rlp · · Score: 5, Funny

    Border agent: What is your reason for traveling today.
    Geek:  I'm talking to a company about fault-tolerant servers
           ...
           and in this Powerpoint you'll notice that the two processors are running in
           lock-step.  Whereas, this comparator here looks at these two pairs of CPU's
           ....
    Border agent: You may go.
    Geek:  Wait!  This is the interesting part ...
    Border agent: For the love of God, please go!

    --
    [Insert pithy quote here]
  12. Use the tarantino method by grahamsz · · Score: 5, Funny

    The way your dad looked at it, this Secure Digital Card was your birthright. He'd be damned if any slopes gonna put their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright, so he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this solid state media device up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the memory card. I hid this uncomfortable piece of plastic up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give this Sandisk Extreme 8GB SDHC card to you.

  13. photographing landmarks by falconwolf · · Score: 5, Informative

    One lesson from an incredibly expensive joke of a "terrorist" case in Australia is that a photograph of a landmark is proof you are going to blow it up. Be careful with those holiday snapshots!

    I don't know if there's anything like it in Australia but in the US we have this handbook, "The Photographer's Right", photographers started to carry. In a photography class in college I was taking when 911 happened, we heard about how photographers started to go through questioning when they were taking photos. One student there was working on a class assignment when police or private security personnel tried to confiscate his camera. It was a bizarre tyme for photographers then.

    Falcon

    --
    Should there be a Law?
  14. Re:24 hours by jimicus · · Score: 5, Funny

    There is a bill being debated in the US Congress right now to limit impoundment of laptops to 24 hours.

    And I'm sure that in order to back that up, they'll take a forwarding address from you and FedEx you the laptop immediately those 24 hours are up, lovingly packaged and at no further cost to the passenger, regardless of where you are in the world. And when FedEx loses a package (because no courier company in the whole of history has ever achieved a 0% loss rate), they'll chase FedEx up on your behalf, replacing the laptop for you if FedEx can't find it in a reasonable timespan.

    Regarding the data on the lost laptop, they'll almost certainly image it before they let it go anyway, so I'm sure they'll be only too happy to copy the image to another disk and ship that to you.

    And all of this will be done so quickly and efficiently you won't even miss it.