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NZ Customs Wants Power To Require Passwords

Posted by samzenpus on from the papers-please dept.

First time accepted submitter Orange Roughy writes New Zealand customs are seeking powers to obtain passwords and encryption keys for travelers. Supposedly they will only act to obtain credentials if it was acting on 'some intelligence or observation of abnormal behaviour.' People who refuse to hand over credentials could face up to three months jail time. From the story: "Customs boss Carolyn Tremain has told MPs the department would only request travellers hand over passwords to their electronic devices if it had a reason to be suspicious about what was on them. The department unleashed a furore last week when it said in a discussion paper that it should be given unrestricted power to force people to divulge passwords to their smartphones and computers at the border. That would be without Customs officials having to show they had any grounds for suspicion."

21 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Strong public relations by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Kills tourism to N.Z.

    1. Re: Strong public relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It won't happen. It's been demonstrated over and over again that people are willing and often eager to comply with the authorities' requests. More likely, other countries will follow soon and the day will come when this is law everywhere. We live in the Surveillance Age now. Deal with it.

    2. Re: Strong public relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Fine. We do not believe you, go to jail. When you grow up you'll learn that playing smartass with people who literally own your life is not only foolish but suicidal. You have no concept or understanding of the imbalance of power between you and them, do you?

    3. Re:Strong public relations by ruir · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh yes it happens. I have "nothing to hide" but wont travel to parts of the world that do not respect my rights to privacy. What I alone? I sincerely doubt it.

    4. Re: Strong public relations by Karmashock · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can have hidden encrypted information.

      You're starting an arms race. Cisco is already shipping routers to dead drops in a bid to avoid NSA interceptions.

      The entire tech ecosystem is reacting to increased surveillance.

      The average user you will get it. But person with something to hide? They'll install a bit of encryption software that will not only encrypt the data but make it look like it doesn't even exist.

      And if there is something you have a bogus encrypted file that is decrypted instead.

      There are lots of means of dealing with this stuff.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    5. Re: Strong public relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People like you made Nazi Germany a reality. Good job.

    6. Re: Strong public relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, why not? Getting passwords and checking laptops, phones and whatnot on the border is completely useless waste of time, and won't catch a single criminal or terrorist. People will just travel with clean machines and download anything they need while in the country. What if you don't actually KNOW the password? Company IT department will tell it on the phone to you after you have passed customs? Jailed for 3 months? What if your USB stick contains a "random" datafile? Is it encrypted or just junk? Or some data for some obscure program?

      That being said, people will just travel with clean computers, especially the ones that might have something to hide.

    7. Re:Strong public relations by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's even worse for business travellers. New Zealand is already known to do a lot of industrial spying as part of FIVE EYES.

      It's got to the point now where you have to wipe your laptop before travelling, then restore it when you get through customs. Same with your phone. Fortunately it is easy to do both those things these days.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re: Strong public relations by gadget+junkie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It won't happen. It's been demonstrated over and over again that people are willing and often eager to comply with the authorities' requests. More likely, other countries will follow soon and the day will come when this is law everywhere. We live in the Surveillance Age now. Deal with it.

      Of course they are. the great unwashed do not see the point, and the others use some form of plausible deniability encryption.
      This is the usual PHB event in which a high official misread some bad science in a hairdresser magazine, asked that something be done about it to an even more ignorant burocrat, and lo and behold, something was eventually done.
      nothing to see here.

      --
      "If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)
    9. Re: Strong public relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Before my next visit to NZ I'll change my phone's password to "fuckyouretardednzcustomsofficers-youimbecilepuppetstotheusa"

      Feel free to use it yourself :-)

    10. Re: Strong public relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Way to lay down in the street and die just because some with supposed authority asks you to.

      There's also a third solution: appear to be compliant while retaining your privacy.

    11. Re: Strong public relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Better yet, when travelling - the best security is physical security. Don't take important crap with you, keep it on a secure server in your mother country.

      Laptops should be dumb terminals, nothing more.

    12. Re: Strong public relations by Sun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No, it is not.

      It is a legitimate invocation of a core reason why Nazism was allowed to rule, despite most Germans being against it.

      Goodwin is more about "You do know that Hitler also washed his hands daily". Drawing an analogy that has nothing to do with Nazism.

      Shachar

    13. Re: Strong public relations by dargaud · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or what if your work actually FORBIDS you to reveal your password to anyone, under various penalties ? I'd like to see a high US official pass through customs and watch a random rent-a-cop get his password and copy all his files. Right, like this is gonna happen.

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
  2. Decoy by photonic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Easy workaround: dual-booted laptop, one partition with WindowsXP and weak password, full with celebrity porn, 9/11 conspiracy documents and spyware to keep them busy for a while. Fully encrypted Linux partition for everything else.

    --
    karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
    1. Re:Decoy by khasim · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Use a throwaway for traveling and upload to a 'cloud' drive during the trip.

      Yes! Do that!

      While you are travelling you are at higher risk for your stuff to be STOLEN.

      So make sure that the thieves (or customs officials) only get hardware.

      Learn how to securely access your files/data remotely.

      Trying to be secretive with hidden partitions and such just runs the risk that you might encounter the one customs agent who knows something about computers. Be boring. Be the most boring person they've ever seen. Have NOTHING of interest to ANYONE on your systems. No pictures/music/movies/anything.

    2. Re:Decoy by sjames · · Score: 3, Funny

      Do have plenty of powerpoints explaining the 1040 long form. That might actually put them into a coma if they look at it.

  3. Standard practice for a department by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A department such as customs, police, wellfare etc. will always ask for the maximum possible powers. It is a given. There can be no argument against the fact that a speed camera on every light pole will lower the amount of speeders (either by fear or getting them off the roads). The police therefore will ask for that.

    The role of the legislative body is to control the power of the departments and offset their wants against the negative outcomes of those wants. *Customs* We want everyone's password *Legislature* No, but you can seize equipment and a password may be demanded by a judge.

    The fact that they don't always get it right is a different issue.

  4. "not its intention", hah, hah! by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Although the proposed power would let Customs request passwords from any traveller or do random checks on electronic devices, Tremain told a parliamentary select committee that was not its intention.

    Instead, the department would only use the power if it was acting on "some intelligence or observation of abnormal behaviour", she said.

    Protip: whenever some government official says that they won't use their power for some purpose, you know that it will be used in exactly that way or for that purpose. Case in point, RIPA in the UK, which has been used (abused) in cases related to petty crime in exactly the way it was originally claimed it would not be used.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  5. See you in three months by facetube · · Score: 4, Funny

    for i in `seq 1 2160`; do echo "Hello, jail! It's hour $n."; done \
    | gpg -a --symmetric --passphrase "$(dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1024 count=1)" > ~/important.txt

  6. Re: What do you expect to find? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think you're underestimating how stupid some people are.