Whitehat Hacker Moxie Marlinspike's Laptop, Cellphones Seized

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."

Comments

First Post

[Ethanol-fueled]

Fuck the TSA goons. Those fucking low-rent frotteurs have it coming to them.

Re:First Post

[kainosnous]

Reporting vulnerabilities is a lot different than making software to exploit them. Certainly, finding vulnerabilities is whitehat work, but there is a process to go through to make a reasonable attempt to make product vendors aware of flaws before releasing tools to exploit them. My point, however, is that rather than just presenting him as an ordinary guy, they chose to portray him as a "Whitehat Hacker". With all the misinformation on what a Hacker is, I think we should use a little more discretion. I propose that it may be his travel that sparks interest, and not just his vocation.