Re: Appeals Court: Border electronics searches are okay

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Jubal Kessler [jubal () cheeze org]
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 6:37 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re:  Appeals Court: Border electronics searches are okay

Dave,

It looks like Bruce Schneier and I agree, independently, about
zero-liability measures to take prior to going through customs:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/15/computing.security

"So your best defence is to clean up your laptop. A customs agent can't
read what you don't have. You don't need five years' worth of email and
client data. You don't need your old love letters and those photos (you
know the ones I'm talking about). Delete everything you don't absolutely
need. And use a secure file erasure program to do it. While you're at
it, delete your browser's cookies, cache and browsing history. It's
nobody's business what websites you've visited. And turn your computer
off - don't just put it to sleep - before you go through customs; that
deletes other things. Think of all this as the last thing to do before
you stow your electronic devices for landing. Some companies now give
their employees forensically clean laptops for travel, and have them
download any sensitive data over a virtual private network once they've
entered the country. They send any work back the same way, and delete
everything again before crossing the border to go home. This is a good
idea if you can do it."


-------- Original Message --------
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:59:49 -0400
From: Jubal Kessler <jubal () cheeze org>
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re:  Appeals Court: Border electronics searches are okay

My concern with the electronic-search ruling is that it effectively
places under high risk any type of data being trasported across the
border. Any... type of data.

One idea I have is to provide a "clean-room" mode, or install, of any
OS. There is no personal, and very minimal, corporate data on this
notional install. Once on the other side of the border, one would go
online and retrieve what's necessary to do business or personal items:
mail, documents, etc.

This idea falls down if the country being entered has severely
problematic Internet access, but might have merit if the goal is just to
pass the heavily fortified (as it were) border measures with zero liability.

VPN software and other tools necessary to establish a secure connection
could still be installed, albeit with their configuration written down
on a piece of paper, or if possible, just memorized.


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