C|Net News: Kevin Mitnick detained, released after Colombia trip

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: bobr () bobrosenberg phoenix az us
Date: October 1, 2008 12:51:08 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: C|Net News:  Kevin Mitnick detained, released after Colombia  
trip

Dave

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Other than that, have a nice day.

Cheers,
Bob

--
Bob Rosenberg
P.O. Box 33023
Phoenix, AZ  85067-3023
Mobile:  602-206-2856
LandLine:  602-274-3012
bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us

**************

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the  
voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of  
increasingly
repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its  
citizens and
creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
-- President Harry S. Truman, message to Congress, August 8, 1950

**************


October 1, 2008 4:00 AM PDT
Kevin Mitnick detained, released after Colombia trip
Posted by Elinor Mills 19 comments
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10054569-83.html?tag=nl.e703

Updated at 7:55 a.m. PT on Wednesday to specify that the FBI cleared  
Mitnick of any
wrongdoing in this event.

Since being released from prison eight years ago, Kevin Mitnick's  
brushes with the
law have consisted of a few parking tickets and a citation for driving  
without a
front license plate--that is, until he returned from a trip to  
Colombia two weeks
ago.
(Credit: Monty Brinton )

After landing at the Atlanta airport for a security conference,  
Mitnick was detained
for four hours for reasons still not fully explained. To make matters  
worse, while
customs officials in Atlanta were busy inspecting his cell phone,  
laptop, and
luggage, police in Bogota were ripping open a package he had mailed to  
his U.S.
address on suspicion that it contained cocaine.

The simultaneous incidents gave Mitnick deja vu of his days as a  
fugitive pursued by
the FBI for breaking into computer networks, only this time, he hadn't  
broken any
laws.

"There was uncertainty, fear, and panic because I didn't know what was  
going on, and
I didn't do anything wrong," he said in a recent telephone interview  
with CNET News.
"In my mind, I thought I was being set up for something."

Here's a rundown of what happened:

Mitnick's Delta Airlines plane landed in Atlanta on September 16 at  
around 3 p.m. He
had flown in from Bogota, where he had gone to give a speech to the  
newspaper El
Tiempo and to visit his girlfriend.

The first sign of trouble was when a U.S. customs agent swiped his  
passport through
the computer system and started staring intently at the screen and  
typing. "Kevin,"
the agent said with a big smile on his face. "Guess what? There are  
some people
downstairs who want to have a word with you, but don't worry.  
Everything will be
OK."

As if that wasn't bad enough, while he waited to retrieve his luggage,  
Mitnick's
cell phone rang. It was his girlfriend in Bogota saying she'd just  
gotten a call
from the police there. They wanted permission to open up a package of  
computer
equipment and souvenirs he'd mailed back to the U.S. a few days  
earlier because they
said they found traces of cocaine on the package.

He finished the call and went back to the business at hand, offering  
his luggage up
for inspection. A customs agent asked if he had ever been arrested.  
"Yes." Had he
ever been to jail? "Yes." For how long? "Five years." They knew the  
answers all too
well, of course.

In his luggage, they found a MacBook Pro, a Dell XPS M1210 laptop, an  
Asus 900
mini-laptop, three or four hard drives, numerous USB storage devices,  
some Bluetooth
dongles, three iPhones, and four Nokia cell phones (with different SIM  
cards for
different countries).

They also found a lock-picking kit and an HID proximity card spoofer  
that can be
used to snag data stored on physical access cards by swiping it in  
front of them.
The data can then be used to enter locked doors without having to make  
a forged
access card. Mitnick says he used the device in a demonstration about  
security in
his speech in Bogota, but that the customs agents' eyes lit up when  
they saw it,
thinking it was a credit card reader.

Mitnick asked if he was under arrest and was told that, no, he was  
just being
detained. He asked if there is a warrant for his arrest and he was  
told, "We don't
know yet." The agents let him call his lawyer and his family.

"I was really nervous because I didn't know what the hell was going  
on," he said.

Agents from the Immigrations Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrived to  
question him. They
asked why he was in Atlanta and he told them; he was there to moderate  
a panel at a
security conference sponsored by the American Society for Industrial  
Security
(ASIS). Asked for proof, he fired up a laptop to show them the  
itinerary in his
e-mail. But when he clicked "yes" to have Firefox clear his private  
data--an
automatic response to a default setting--the agents snatched the  
laptop away from
him, thinking he was deleting evidence.
"They can detain you for four hours, inspect everything, and put you  
through the
third degree for no reason...I travel in foreign countries that have  
even more
stringent rules, and I never have problems."

"Then I realized I was logged in and I don't want them to have my  
password," Mitnick
said. So, he quickly reached over and hits the power button to "off."

Fortunately for Mitnick, one of the members of the panel he was to  
moderate works
for the FBI, and customs agents were able to reach him to verify  
Mitnick's story.
Meanwhile, ASIS organizers, worried about Mitnick's non-arrival for  
his awaiting
airport ride, had also called the director of security at the airport  
and helped
clear things up. The FBI in Atlanta cleared Mitnick of any wrongdoing,  
so ICE let
him go after apologizing several times. After some more questioning  
from customs
officials, he was released.

But what about the package in Bogota? Police there tore open the box,  
took the
electronic equipment apart, and destroyed the hard drive trying to  
open it by
drilling a hole in it, but didn't find any drugs. The two incidents  
were,
apparently, completely unrelated and coincidental.

"Can you imagine if I had said to the agents 'Does this have to do  
with the
cocaine?'" Mitnick jokes.

He can laugh about it now, but he was willing to share the story as a  
cautionary
tale for anyone traveling into the United States with computer  
equipment. He was
red-flagged for obvious reasons, and someone without his background  
might be able to
stay under the radar. However, scrutiny is at the whim of officials  
who have been
said to target political activists, nuns, and people who just happen  
to have a last
name on no-fly government lists.

And then there is the recently bestowed right customs officials have  
to seize
laptops crossing into the country with no cause whatsoever--though  
that may change.
Legislation was recently introduced that would require reasonable  
suspicion of
illegal activity before border agents could search electronic devices  
of U.S.
citizens.

"They can detain you for four hours, inspect everything, and put you  
through the
third degree for no reason. It's really a police state," Mitnick said.  
"I travel in
foreign countries that have even more stringent rules, and I never  
have problems."

To protect his privacy and that of his clients, Mitnick encrypts all the
confidential data on his laptops, transmits it over the Internet for  
storage on
servers in the U.S., and wipes it from the computer before returning  
from any
international trips, just in case officials decide to search or seize  
his equipment.
He also encrypts his hard drive. And now, he says he is going to keep  
a "clone" of
his MacBook at home so he will have an exact duplicate of it if it is  
ever seized.

"I don't harbor any ill feelings toward (customs), but I was really  
scared because
of the circumstances that were happening in Bogota at the same time,"  
he says. "I
feel lucky in a sense, and I feel violated in a sense."






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