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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."

13 of 484 comments (clear)

  1. 4th by drumcat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm still not sure how this doesn't violate the Fourth Amendment. Customs has the right to view your belongings for *safety* reasons, and to ensure that the items you are carrying are not contraband. Does code constitute contraband now? Can you be arrested for having code on your machine? I'm not talking about copyrighted, installed programs.... if something is encrypted, isn't that the same as having a secret in your mind? You know they dumped his drive, but the main question is whether they're allowed to. Isn't that stealing from the passenger then?

    1. Re:4th by Barrinmw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What you want to do is to have something you copyrighted on your laptop, so if they copy your hard drive you can sue them for copyright infringement.

    2. Re:4th by ScrewMaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Do you really expect the founding fathers to have anticipated computing devices that can encrypt data?

      And furthermore, there's a reason that the Founders didn't try to enumerate specific communications technologies: they figured (apparently incorrectly, given your statements) that we would be able to logically extend our legal system to accommodate new technology, without requiring the citizenry to give up hard-won civil liberties as enshrined in the Constitution. It looks like some people are just unable to grasp that "personal papers and effects" might, I mean, just might, include a personal computer, and that that would indeed be in the spirit of the Constitution.

      Do you really, in your heart of hearts, believe that the Founding Fathers, if they were alive today, would consider a hard drive full of a citizen's personal and confidential files to be in any way less deserving of the same legal protections afforded someone's wallet or their file cabinet? Do you really? Or are you one of these people who believes that the government should have the right to snoop into anyone's private business, for any reason, because they might have something to hide?

      Spare me. This artificial dichotomy that is being presented to us by the government, that the "Internet" and "computing" are so intrinsically different from printed materials that the Constitution some how magically doesn't apply is disingenuous at best, treasonous at worst.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    3. Re:4th by evanism · · Score: 5, Insightful

      At least the RIAA and MPAA are not grabbing my penis, fondling my beasts or rubbing their hands all over children yet.

      This airport theatre is OBSCENE, ethically and morally wrong on EVERY level.

      Those who are able to justify it makes me think they are unhinged.

      --
      Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
    4. Re:4th by raddan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      *ugh* giving up mod points here, because I am sick to death of hearing this "activist judge" crap.

      Go ahead: please tell us how you would enforce the 4th Amendment without "interpreting" the meaning of "unreasonable".

    5. Re:4th by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's a 4th amendment exception around airports and borders.. they can search you for *no reason*. If you don't think that is fair, you're not the only one.

      Work in law enforcement, national security, or for a politician? Want someone you want searched but can't get the probable cause for a warrant? No worries, wait for them to fly, search 'em at the border and find something suspicious.. now you can search the rest of their property.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    6. Re:4th by TheLink · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Heh it'll be funny if more US citizens start finding it less hassle to sneak into their own country like illegal immigrants.

      --
  2. Great, now it's trash. by VortexCortex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would never trust my hardware again once I had handed it over to some customs (or other government agent) goons, and it left my sight. I would rather just remove the hard drive and hand it alone over to them, at least then I wouldn't have to trash the whole thing.

    There's really no way to be 100% sure you successfully "re-flashed" the BIOS, or cleaned all hardware as some posters have said they would do. Not to mention: There could be additional hardware installed, 5 hours is a long time...

    You could tear your machine apart and inspect it all you want, but it's well known once the enemy has unfettered physical access to a device, all bets are off.

  3. What's so important to warrant harrassing millions by mykos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't think of a single thing that could be carried on any laptop that warrants the harrassment of millions a year.

    Even if a 9/11 scale event happened every single year, it would take more than four years to match a single year of alcohol-related deaths in the U.S.

  4. Re:First Post by Dan541 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Data has nothing to do with customs. They are overstepping their jurisdiction just to bully people.

    --
    An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
  5. Re:First Post by e4g4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Regardless of how long it takes, there is no reason to search laptops at the border. Anyone truly interested in slyly transmitting data across the US border would never be foolish enough to accompany said data on the trip. It is _trivial_ to transmit data undetected into the US (nice to meet you, internet. how long have you been there?); what justification is there for searching laptops in the first place?

    --
    The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
  6. Re:First Post by Nursie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Without people looking for vulnerabilities in SSL and publishing the results there would be other people looking for vulnerabilities in SSL and not publishing, just using them to steal.

    Security crackers that publish their results are essential to making sure we are really secure, not that we just think we are.

  7. Re:First Post by corsec67 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, Customs tried to erase all of your data on that drive? (If the drive was in a file system that they didn't recognize, like EXT3 or such, then writing files would destroy data)

    Actually, why would customs mount the drive in a way that it could be modified at all? It seems like if they can modify it, anything they found would be tainted.

    --
    If I have nothing to hide, don't search me