Travelling to the USA with Laptops

[fivelza]

Just received this from our in-house travel agent..very concerning:

Travelling with a laptop to the US? Know the rules…

THE Association of Corporate Travel Executives (Acte) is warning that under US law, government agents may seize and search a traveller´s laptop, computer discs, and other electronic media when that person arrives in the US from abroad or departs the US for a foreign country. The law applies equally to US passport holders and non-US passport holders. The association is advising business travellers to be cautious in carrying proprietary information across US borders.
"The information that US government officials have the right to examine, download, or even seize business travellers' laptops came as a surprise to the majority of our members," said Acte's executive director Susan Gurley, "The common belief is that there is a right to the privacy of one's computer."
"Acte´s leadership continues to ask for clarification from the US government regarding what steps, if any, are being taken to protect confidential business, privileged legal, and personal information." said Gurley.

 

[bwana]

We never travel with sensitive information if we can avoid it. If we know an internet connection is going to be available we encrypt it and send it to a gmail account for retrieval upon arrival. If we had the facilities available we'd probably do it via a vpn.

 

[Pitbull]

Just received this from our in-house travel agent..very concerning:

Travelling with a laptop to the US? Know the rules…

THE Association of Corporate Travel Executives (Acte) is warning that under US law, government agents may seize and search a traveller´s laptop, computer discs, and other electronic media when that person arrives in the US from abroad or departs the US for a foreign country. The law applies equally to US passport holders and non-US passport holders. The association is advising business travellers to be cautious in carrying proprietary information across US borders.
"The information that US government officials have the right to examine, download, or even seize business travellers' laptops came as a surprise to the majority of our members," said Acte's executive director Susan Gurley, "The common belief is that there is a right to the privacy of one's computer."
"Acte´s leadership continues to ask for clarification from the US government regarding what steps, if any, are being taken to protect confidential business, privileged legal, and personal information." said Gurley.

I see a business idea popping in my head, rent out laptops @ US airports.
LMAO

 

[Syndyre]

The big question is, if its encrypted can the force you to hand over the key or passphrase?

 

[bwana]

The big question is, if its encrypted can the force you to hand over the key or passphrase?

Probably - or they'll just hold on to it until they've decrypted it. Rather email it or carry it on a separate device.

 

[Syndyre]

The very fact that you can just email it negates the whole process anyway. Do they also search people's Ipods, camera memory cards, cellphones etc.? All these can just as easily carry data

 

[bdt]

The big question is, if its encrypted can the force you to hand over the key or passphrase?

Given that merely disagreeing with that Mad Hatter of a prez of theirs is in itself now a crime, if you got picked up and they saw encryption they would just hold you as an "enemy combatant" (maybe even at Gitmo) until you caved in.

So go with deniable encryption, care of TrueCrypt:

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.

• Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a storage device such as USB flash drive.

• Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

• Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:

1) Hidden volume (steganography – more information may be found here).

2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).

...and simply do an end-run around the problem?

 

[Syndyre]

Nice program, thanks. Had any experience with it?

 

[bdt]

Happy to help; re usage, sorry but you'll have to do it from scratch yourself - and maybe report back to the forum...?

Oh, and while digging through my email I just happened across SafeBoot if you're happier with a solution you pay (likely through the nose!) for - and may well not have the cloaking facilities of TrueCrypt...

 

[stix]

The more i read this stuff the more i believe the Yanks have lost another war.

Osama and his merry bunch have affected the life of folks in the states to such a degree that they must be declared the winner.

 

[bwana]

The more i read this stuff the more i believe the Yanks have lost another war.

Osama and his merry bunch have affected the life of folks in the states to such a degree that they must be declared the winner.

I agree to a point but most of the security measures mentioned should be SOP anyway.