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Whitehat Hacker Moxie Marlinspike's Laptop, Cellphones Seized

Posted by timothy on from the why-do-you-hate-america dept.

Orome1 writes "The well-known whitehat hacker and security researcher who goes by the handle Moxie Marlinspike has recently experienced firsthand the electronic device search that travelers are sometimes submitted to by border agents when entering the country. He was returning from the Dominican Republic by plane, and when he landed at JFK airport, he was greeted by two US Customs officials and taken to a detention room where they kept him for almost five hours, took his laptop and two cell phones and asked for the passwords needed to access the encrypted material on them."

5 of 484 comments (clear)

  1. Link to longer article at CNET by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Link to longer article at CNET

  2. Finishing the story by the_other_chewey · · Score: 5, Informative

    took his laptop and two cell phones and asked for the passwords needed to access the encrypted material on them.

    ...didn't get them, gave him back his hardware and let him go.

    Really, why try to sensationalize a story by omitting its outcome?

    The fact that something as diriculous as "incoming data storage devices searches" even
    exist should be enough of a story by itself, and that has been known for quite a while.

  3. Re:4th by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you really expect the founding fathers to have anticipated computing devices that can encrypt data? And to put that sort of thing in the constitution?

    No, the authors of the constitution didn't anticipate everything. But they anticipated quite a bit, and that includes unanticipated technology and social issues. In order to give the government the ability to deal with change, the constitution contains article V, which is the portion that outlines the procedure for amendment. Excepting amendment, they expected the constitution to be followed. Not "interpreted."

    Our government, however, has fiddled its way into a situation where it does whatever the heck it wants. Make no law? Let's make some law!!! No state religion? Let's print Christian stuff on the money, carve it into buildings, sing it in the anthem, and best of all, use it in the courts for swearing... that'll teach 'em. Shall not infringe? Yay, let's infringe! Regulate among the states? Let's regulate IN the states! No ex post facto laws? Oh *heck* no, we GOTTA make those! Enumerated powers? Nah, let's just do anything we want, the heck with that! Warrants to search? Um... only in the interior of the country. And even then, maybe not. Probable cause? That's the same as "We like to grope", isn't it? Sure! No double jeopardy? Oh, that's easy, we'll just toss them back and forth between the criminal and civil court systems, they'll never figure that one out! Trial by jury? Same as "Lock in closet indefinitely, no lawyer, no phone call, innit?" Cruel and unusual punishment... yeah, what was that awesome torture we hung the Axis defendants for using at the war crimes trials? Oh yeah, water-boarding... let's do THAT! (and let's not forget we have rendition to play with, either.) Excessive bail shall not be imposed... heck with that, we'll ask whatever we want! Powers reserved to the states? Bwahahahaha. Oh, and the article III kicker... judicial power in constitutional cases: nah... let's just Make Stuff Up and skip that whole article V inconvenience.*

    (*) It should be noted that the USG has steadfastly avoided violating the 3rd amendment, and should certainly be commended for its restraint in this matter.

    Here in the US (and England) we rely more on common law - yes, judges.

    Here in the US, we have government that has usurped powers far outside the explicitly authorized bounds. And that most certainly includes the judiciary.

    In the end, it turns out that what the authors of the constitution wrote matters very little in our current legal system, because that document is treated by the government as barely relevant at this point in time, and even at that, only when it is convenient. Otherwise they ignore it, make things up, or simply plow ahead regardless.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  4. Re:First Post by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Informative

    As for the second, please explain how in the fuck you get labeled a "white hat" for showing up at black hat conferences and showing everyone how to MITM SSL?

    Black hats don't hold conferences (in meatspace). There's just a conference called Black Hat which, by the nature of information from the conference being made public, is actually a white hat conference. It actually started out as something closer to a true black hat conference but of course that didn't last long.

    Black hats have their conferences in various chat rooms and forums. When they meet, you don't know about it.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  5. Re:4th by protektor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Umm I think you missed the news announcement. They are already testing this at bus stations and train stations. So there is no need to wait, it is already here.

    Here is the TSA patting people down at a bus station.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hT8hfrak9I

    Looks like the TSA are already at train terminals.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORdBoG8qv9w

    So it would seem that they are only left with us traveling by car. Although I hear that they have vans with the scanners in them and are going to use them at the borders to scan cars without people getting out them. Here is the company that is selling them.
    http://www.as-e.com/

    So it only a matter of time before the TSA is everywhere scanning everyone at the rate they are going.