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chemoleo
Biochemicus Energeticus
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US Customs New Laptop Measure
This was sent to employees of an unnamed company (I don't work there!)
| Quote: |
US Customs has a new procedure where they can seize your laptop when arriving in the US . They may copy your information for analysis.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the authority to seize a laptop and retain it long enough to assess whether the individual is taking
anything unlawful across the border. Anyone who challenges a DHS or Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official as they execute their
responsibilities will only generate suspicion that the individual has something to hide, which will only provoke DHS/TSA to be even more curious.
What you should do if your *** laptop is seized by DHS/TSA:
1. Identify yourself as a *** employee.
2. Explain that the laptop is *** property and used for business purposes.
3. State that you are happy to cooperate in any way DHS/TSA requests.
If, for any reason, DHS/TSA keeps your laptop and tells you to leave the airport, you should:
1. Obtain the name of the official who took your laptop.
2. Notify your department security contact to open an incident report in the Incident Response Tracking system located at ***. In the report explain
what occurred. Provide the date, time, airport, name of DHS/TSA official, and a recap of what was said to you and what you said to DHS/TSA. Also
include if any non-work-related content is on the laptop, and if so, what that is (such as photos of friends/family).
3. Global Security will determine next steps including contacting DHS/TSA.
Next Steps before you travel to the United States :
• Ensure you have *** identification available during your business trip (such as a business card or *** badge).
• Back up your data before leaving for your business trip. Recommended back-up solutions are PC Data Back-Up or ***'s External BackUp Solution.
FAQ’s:
Should you give out the password to your laptop?
If requested by the US Customs official, yes, you should cooperate. You should change your passwords once the laptop is returned to you.
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I find this truly shocking. When are our letters, books, pictures photographed or copied, when travelling, just to ensure they contain nothing
'unlawful'? Why is it justified to potentially copy the entire content of a harddrive?
Why do we put up with it?
People everywhere in the world are forced to put up with these new measures, executed by the US alone. If every country does that, what are we left
with? An information cold war?
The person who sent me this information stated, when I questioned this - that we put up with this (here in Europe) because the US is a market, great
for vendors/sellers from abroad, and that Europe (and much of the world) is dependent on it. That, in the person's own words, is why China gets away
with almost anything. I think this is correct. Odd that in Europe, there certainly is a market but they don't do such things - perhaps because they
squabble too much. All that Europe does is to provide i.e. 30 datasets on European airplane passengers to the US, but not vice versa. The sweet
blackmail being, "Europeans, we won't allow your planes in otherwise".
Anyway I wanted to make you aware of this, fellow European travellers. Take care to not take your various files across.
Please keep any debate civil and rational, or this thread will be locked.
[Edited on 10-9-2008 by chemoleo]
Never Stop to Begin, and Never Begin to Stop...
Tolerance is good. But not with the intolerant! (Wilhelm Busch)
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MagicJigPipe
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So, basically, they can steal secret corporate and/or personal information (and use it) without paying a dime for it.
This is bad.
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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not_important
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Rather old news :
| Quote: | By Alexandra Marks| Staff Writer for The Christian Science Monitor/ July 10, 2008 edition
Is a laptop searchable in the same way as a piece of luggage? The Department of Homeland Security believes it is.
For the past 18 months, immigration officials at border entries have been searching and seizing some citizens’ laptops, cellphones, and BlackBerry
devices when they return from international trips.
In some cases, the officers go through the files while the traveler is standing there. In others, they take the device for several hours and download
the hard drive’s content. After that, it’s unclear what happens to the data. |
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/07/10/us-defen...
| Quote: | By Alex Kingsbury
Posted June 24, 2008
Returning from a vacation to Germany in February, freelance journalist Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles
International Airport outside Washington. Agents searched his luggage, he said, "then they told me that they were impounding my laptop."
Shaken by the encounter, Hogan examined his bags and found the agents had also inspected the memory card from his camera. "It was fortunate that I
didn't use [the laptop] for work," he said, "or I would have had to call up all my sources and tell them that the government had just seized their
information." When customs offered to return the computer nearly two weeks later, Hogan had it shipped to his lawyer. |
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=139159
thread includes links to the two government documents detailing the polices.
Note that MP3 players are included in this, because:
| Quote: | A pair of DHS policies from last month say that customs agents can routinely--as a matter of course--seize, make copies of, and "analyze the
information transported by any individual attempting to enter, re-enter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States."
DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating "copyright or trademark
laws." |
A friend who travels to the States fairly frequently is considering getting a really cheap used out-of-date laptop, dump a number of typical tourist
photos and a bunch of binary files of random and transcendental numbers on it, then infecting it with the worst viruses and similar malware that they
can collect, and take this with them when they travel in hopes it will get examined.
The potential for industrial espionage has been pointed out, the US government has patted people on the head and told them not to worry, everything
will be OK. A number of high tech businesses have thought otherwise, and are going to strongly encrypted on-line storage instead of have that
information carried on a laptop.
Bruce Schneier wrote on this early this year, and described what he would do:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/us_customs_sei...
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Sauron
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And I suppose you think the UK government or the German government or the French etc etc cannot do exactly the same thing anytime they want to?
Furthermore, I know for a fact that none of the many international travellers I am acquainted with, who travel with laptops and notebooks, has ever
had this happen.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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MagicJigPipe
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No doubt. But if it happens to one "innocent" person that is one too many.
Even if it happens to a "guilty" person I don't think it's good. The end result doesn't always justify the means.
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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chemrox
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I'm appalled of course. One more example of the current administration handing Al Queda the victory. I also think it's fool hardy to carry company
secrets in a laptop in unencrypted files. Use pgp for files and emails. As a matter of routine .. not just for 'sensitive' material.
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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Sauron
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The US and UK have absolutely massive intercept capability for all forms of telecommunications worldwide. Use a phone, cell phone, fax, send an email,
use the Internet, or transmit data over a LANor WAN or leased line, microwave link, whatever. Of course most of that out to several decimel places is
just garbage noise and of no interest, but the proposition that business information and communications (or personal either) are somehow immune from
COMINT is incredibly naive.
When entering the US, your effects can in principle be inspected. Compact disks for example can be checked to verify that no child porn is in them, or
that illegally copied copyrighted material such as movies, are not being smuggled in. Few would argue with the first, and rarely does ICE go after the
latter unless a lot of DVDs are involved. I see no difference between these and the contents of a notebook HDD.
ICE is not AFAIK copying hard drives routinely. The odds against their doing so in any given instance are staggering. So who gives a rat's ass?
Encrypting your files for no good reason is stupoid, and just red flags your system for attention. Anyone who thinks that they are going to keep NSA
or GCHQ out that way, is ignorant of their capabilities. The bottom line is if you have material you do not want to share, then don't leave it on a
nonremovable HDD when crossing a border.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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franklyn
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This is just dawning on people now
http://www.nysun.com/national/customs-agents-copy-travelers-...
Key to security is plausible denial with nothing apparent.
Software RAID is available with Windows 2000 or XP Pro. Encrypting two hard drives
in RAID 0 renders the information unrecoverable by any forensic method unless both
drives are used together.
You can copy the dynamic RAID partition from one drive as a compressed file then
erase that RAID partiton from it's hard drive. Use an internet accessible file host to
store the compressed file so you can download online and reinstall back into the
erased RAID partition. You should store both of the RAID partitions for backup.
YES you can do this with USB flash thumb drives also
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash.ars/8
See -> 64. Stupid Disk Tricks for XP Part 1: Dynamic Disks
Here _ http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1681&pa...
See -> 66. Stupid Disk Tricks for XP Part 3: Creating Software RAID 0
Here _ http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1681&pa...
Basic Storage Versus Dynamic Storage in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314343
How To Convert to Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows XP Professional
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044/EN-US
How To Use Disk Management to Configure Dynamic Disks in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308424/en-us
Partition image software
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/index.htm
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
Erasing methods and software
Entering the " cipher " command at a DOS prompt in XP and Win2K will securely erase
already deleted files inside a directory. Type cipher /? for a list of options.
Hit the Windows Key and R , type in " cmd.exe " without quotes and press enter
At the command prompt type the following :
cipher /W:C:\"Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5"
this will clean the Content.IE5 directory.
In this case you D O use the quotes ( this allows DOS to recognize the spaces in
the folder name ) and \Username\ is your windows account name.
Other file overwriting utilities
Shredder
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/shred.htm
Simple file shredder
http://www.scar5.com
Ultra Shredder
http://www.xtort.net/xtort/ultra.php
BCWipe
http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/bcwipe3.htm
Earaser
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser
Necrofile
http://www.nthsystem.com/nfinfo.html
____________________________
Related references
http://www.governmentsecurity.org/articles/Anonymitycomplete...
http://www.jabpage.org/posts/filesec.html
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The_Davster
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| Quote: | Originally posted by chemoleo
| Quote: |
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the authority to seize a laptop and retain it long enough to assess whether the individual is taking
anything unlawful across the border.
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There...they finally said it....some types of information are now illegal.
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Sauron
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Aw, come on, The Dayster. Child porn is illegal. Pirated copyright material is illegal. Both are at their essence "information" just zeros and ones,
so there is no great watershed here. Customs has a duty to interdict contraband and there are two blatant examples of contraband "information" that
can easily be smuggled via HDD.
Now personally I could care less about pirate videos, but kiddie porn is another matter.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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Polverone
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If you need to get your terrorist contact list or secret chocolate chip cookie recipe across the border without inspection, do what some businesses
are now doing. Bring a completely clean laptop into the US and load the encrypted data from a foreign server once you're past customs. Upload any
changes you need to make before leaving the country and wipe the laptop again for exit if you want to be really sure.
Sauron is correct that any border agency can do what the US is doing, at least in theory. There are really no restrictions on what indignities a
nation can impose before it lets travelers in. I'm much more skeptical of the idea that the NSA can easily decrypt any encrypted file or transmission.
Even if they do secretly have unicorn magic that cuts through any cipher, it's apparently not shared with other government agencies. When the FBI
wanted to bring down a high-profile encryption-using mobster they still had to physically break into his house and tap his keyboard. If you think your
files are going to be intercepted, you can encrypt them but worry that someone might still have the secret of how to read them, or not encrypt them
and rest assured that anyone can certainly read them.
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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Sauron
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I know something about RAID subsystems since I operate a 1 terabyte hardware RAID 0 on an ESATA port. This is a CalDigit box with a pair of 500 Gb
Hitachi HDDs and it works well for high definition video editing in real time.
I, and others involved in HD video etc, would not trust software RAID as far as we could throw Redmond WA. So the proposition of doing what franklyn
proposes just to avoid the potential prying eyes of Big Nanny, strikes me as a cure much more loathsome than the disease.
As to "illegal" information:
There are rather broad classes of information that are illegal under federal law, specifically the Iternational Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) or
whatever they are called these days, adminsiered by the State Dept Office of Munitions Control and enforced by ICE, and corresponding laws under
Commerce applying to dual-use technology. It is illegal to EXPORT from the US any such information. Pertinent to chemistry is data pertaining to
chemical weapons, military and dual use explosives, and certain kinds of propellant systems for rockets and missiles. It's a long list and the print
is pretty fine, but my point is that yu can get in dutch with the govt going in either direction across the border. Technical information does not
need to be classified to be proscribed from export without a license. Likewise it need not have been developed under a US government contract. They go
so far as to require State Dept formal approval for displays and exhibits at trade shows for defense products and dual use items outside of the US.
The penalties for offenses are staggering.
[Edited on 10-9-2008 by Sauron]
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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MagicJigPipe
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Something that might be ironic about using encryption.
Isn't it illegal to export certain types of encryption ciphers/"codes" out of the US without some sort of license? The reason I think this is because
I know I've seen clauses mentioning that in EULAs of certain pieces of software.
I'm not sure of the details of this matter. Could someone tell me more?
P.S. Could someone show me how to use PGP. I remember trying to a while back and remembering that there was something that was annoying about it
(money possibly?) I do remember that I stopped trying. Does anyone want to help me get started?
[Edited on 9-10-2008 by MagicJigPipe]
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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Sauron
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AFAIK some types of American encryption software, including commercially available software and/or shareware/freeware, above a certain level of
encryption are prohibited from export without a license from State Dept OMC. The current level that is so restricted I do not know or really care as I
do not believe in encryption unless it is really needed and I do not need it.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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watson.fawkes
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Sauron
AFAIK some types of American encryption software, including commercially available software and/or shareware/freeware, above a certain level of
encryption are prohibited from export without a license from State Dept OMC. The current level that is so restricted I do not know or really care as I
do not believe in encryption unless it is really needed and I do not need it. |
This changed about a decade
ago, back when ITAR changed to EAR. The new standard is, very very roughly, if it's freely available, you as a user don't have to worry about any
export restrictions. For more details, start with Stanford University's policy.
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Sauron
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Ah. That's nice. I have been out of USA for 20 years so that sort of news often escapes my attention. At one time I was a registered manufacturer
under ITAR ($500 a year) and never bothered to get the seperates,equally priced license as an exporter because they were never going to let me export
what I made anyway.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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franklyn
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Sauron
I, and others involved in HD video etc, would not trust software RAID as far as we could throw Redmond WA. |
The only reference that I can find related to your concern is
now only a legacy _ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266177
Software RAID runs through the CPU the same routine which is
executed by dedicated firmware in a hardware RAID controller.
Hardware is only faster not more nor less reliable. Why else are
enterprise class operating systems the only ones having this
capability. Data backup can also be automatically provided on
the fly, standard practice in any mission critical setting. The
only real difference is that partitions are not fixed in a given
hard drive. Dynamic disk partitions are movable and can span
multiple hard drives. One advantage is that it is then expandable
as needed. This is not much different than having a software
emulated virtual computer.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757696.aspx
While not officially supported, just as Win server, WinXp can
run and impliment RAID 5 , see _
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windowsxp-make-raid-5-ha...
From the start
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windowsxp-make-raid-5-ha...
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The_Davster
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Sauron
As to "illegal" information:
There are rather broad classes of information that are illegal under federal law, specifically the Iternational Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) or
whatever they are called these days, adminsiered by the State Dept Office of Munitions Control and enforced by ICE, and corresponding laws under
Commerce applying to dual-use technology. It is illegal to EXPORT from the US any such information. Pertinent to chemistry is data pertaining to
chemical weapons, military and dual use explosives, and certain kinds of propellant systems for rockets and missiles. It's a long list and the print
is pretty fine, but my point is that yu can get in dutch with the govt going in either direction across the border. Technical information does not
need to be classified to be proscribed from export without a license. Likewise it need not have been developed under a US government contract. They go
so far as to require State Dept formal approval for displays and exhibits at trade shows for defense products and dual use items outside of the US.
The penalties for offenses are staggering.
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Ok, this is more what I was meaning than kiddie porn which is the exception to my objection to these laws. Although I feel the porn is an excuse for
fishing expeditions for this sort of info.
This is what I object to, that simple information transport is illegal. There are a bunch of explosives research groups in the US, and many more
outside the US, and there are conferences for them in various countries like the Gordon conference or NTREM both of which involve people coming or
going from the US with information of this nature. This is a really obscure law, and what I object to is that perfectly legitimate scientists are
breaking the law by simply carrying a book of conference proceedings.
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Sauron
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Has DHS gone on such fishing expeditions? (willy-nilly copying of HDDs of travellers.) Not that I've heard of.
Has anyone from USA in those explosives discussion groups been prosecuted under the EAR for unlicensed export of defense information?
If so I am unaware of it.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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MagicJigPipe
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I hate to be the one to say this but, then again I've never been concerned with being politically correct... Information should be free. The people
who have kiddie porn on their computers; yeah, they're sick but it's just information. They should be getting at the source. The people that are
taking the pictures in the first place.
And remember, "kiddie porn" to the US Govt. is most likely porn with anyone under 18 in it. I bet some of us have under 18 girls on our computers
right now without even knowing it.
What about those fine lines? What if a decent guy with a few porn videos gets his laptop searched. Then "they" decide "they" don't like the guy
because "porn is immoral" or "against god" (after all the US is a virtual theocracy) so they go ahead and press charges for that bullshit. Would that
be right? Is that what the law says about "kiddie porn"?
(yeah, I know, how would "they" know if the people were underage? Well, what if "they" did know somehow. Should someone go to jail for having naked
pictures of a 17 year old?)
Also, I agree that searching for "kiddie porn" is just a facade. Do we really think govt. agents care about people molesting children in other
countries?
Maybe some. But not collectively I'm sure.
[Edited on 9-10-2008 by MagicJigPipe]
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any
question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and
that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think,
free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
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Sauron
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Given the current attitudes re child porn, my advice is to err on the side of your own safety and that means, if you can't tell if the girl (or boy)
is legally adult, do not have the images or videos on your PC, period, end of story. Do not surf porn sites talking about "young" this and "teenage"
that and if you are compulsively attracted to such minors, seek professional help before you end up being gang raped by your fellow convicts and most
likely castrated by them as well.
Thai girls in their mid 20s often look 10 years younger and some Thai prostitutes cultivate a young look and deliberately attract men with such
inclinations. They are in cahoots with corrupt Thai police and carry multiple ID cards in case the trick wants to check their age. Afterwards they
show up with the cops and shake the guy down for all his money on threat of arrest, having produced the other ID that says they are under age.
The moral is, stay away from jailbait.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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vulture
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| Quote: |
The moral is, stay away from jailbait. |
Since when is carrying your personal data and property through customs something which justifies random seizure of these?
Even if there is NOTHING illegal on your laptop and you provide full cooperation, US customs can still seize it. Try getting it back then.
| Quote: |
Has DHS gone on such fishing expeditions? (willy-nilly copying of HDDs of travellers.) Not that I've heard of. |
Read the security experts blog which is being linked to here. A woman had her laptop confiscated for no reason at all and NEVER saw it back. This is
just legalized theft by government employees. I'm betting that laptop is now in the hands of some DHS agent or his/her kids.
You don't actually believe DHS employees will use discretion when going through your personal information? Read up on varoius scandals where
government employees stupidly made sensitive data accessible to the public.
I invite you to take a laptop with detailed accounts of your experiments and travel with it to the US. Let us know how you fare. If you still can,
that is. They might be waterboarding your ass in egypt for all we know.
[Edited on 11-9-2008 by vulture]
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Sauron
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Fine, don't visit the US then. But I advise you not to go through Dutch Customs either because of course the same thing could, in principle, happen to
you there. Read upthread and see that Polverone conceeded this point, this is NOT US-specific.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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vulture
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FYI, I flew from Amsterdam to Vancouver and back. I had a bag full of electronic gear. NOTHING was checked.
Also, The Netherlands don't abduct people and subject them to torture in foreign countries. Nor do they violate US airspace during such actions.
[Edited on 11-9-2008 by vulture]
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Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
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I hear maybe we do that to terrorists, which is just fine with me. In fact the "extraordinary renditions" are one of the rather few things I can
really say I am proud and pleased about as an American in the last several decades. Not the least because it so infuriates you Euro types.
Or maybe you think terrorists deserve rights?
IMO terrorists gave up all claim to humanity when they became terrorists.
The only way to fight terrorism is counterterrorism.
Or you can give them a country and call them statesmen. That's been tried as well. Begin was a Irgun terrorist (King David Hotel bombing) and another
Israeli PM (Shamir) was a Stern Gang assassin. Killed Count Bernadotte the UN High Commissioner, and Lord Moyne. the UK High Commissioner. Funny old
world isn't it?
[Edited on 12-9-2008 by Sauron]
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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