Judge Places Limits on Airport Laptop Searches
A federal judge has placed restrictions on DHS laptop searches preventing DHS officials from searching your laptop without a warrant.
CNet reports that U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in the Northern District of California rejected the Obama administration's argument that no warrant was necessary to look through the laptop of an American returning home from a trip to South Korea.
In January 2009, Andrew Samuel Hanson's laptop was seized after a customs official found a picture of a naked adolescent girl on a beach. Hanson was charged with possession and transportation of child porn but pleaded not guilty. Several more searches were carried out in February and a forensic search was carried out in June of 2009. Mr. Hanson's lawyer argued that because of the amount of time that had elapsed, the June search could not be considered an extended border search. Because this search was carried out without a warrant, Hanson's lawyer argued that his rights had been violated.
Though the Justice Department tried to argue that the search, which took place nearly five months later, was warranted because laptop could not be cleared by customs until it had been thoroughly searched, Judge White said this argument was not persuasive. White ruled that the June search did require a warrant.
Two years ago, DHS introduced rules that said TSA could kidnap any device capable of storing information (including hard drives, flash drives, your cellphone, MP3 player, Kindle, pager, and any books or documents you happen to have lying around) for "a reasonable amount of time." Aside from being allowed to keep your electronics for as long as they wanted, DHS could also share your data with other federal agencies or private entities for language translation, data decryption or "other reasons." Last year an amendment stated that supervisory approval is required if a device is held for more than 15 days.
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Come on get the title right "Judge Places Limits on Airport Laptop Searches for Inbound International flights". None of this applies to domestic flights.
Sooo... when does google start paying airport security to upload the entire contents of people's electronic devices?
And could that Apply to foreign visitors entering the US for a connecting flight?
TrueCrypt AES.
i wonder how they plan to deal with cloud computing and other such of site data storage
what will they say... hand over your password to your gmail account too? and other bank or other private things as well?
were does it end?
And here I thought the whole point was to prevent terrorist attacks. Now we're going to search people's electronic devices for... porn and what, top secret materials?
To see if it's iPad the feminine product or bomb.
truecrypt's where it's at.
DHS could also share your data with other federal agencies or private entities for language translation, data decryption or "other reasons."
TrueCrypt is good, but my money says the NSA has a "master key" (ie they cracked the algorithms).
Even if not, the argument they would use is that you must be a terrorist because you are hiding something. The mass media and the population at large would buy into that in a heartbeat, even the CEO of Google expressed that sentiment not long ago.
Steganography is a much better option, imo, since they won't even know to go looking for it.
I don't agree with airport security being able to search data on any electronic device unless there is a relevant safety concern, such as terrorism. They should be limited to looking for physical items being brought in unclaimed. Peoples personal files should be none on anyones elses business, unless of course the individual gave a reason for a search. Once I had a seemingly random search at an airport customs inbound. They sifted through my files, checked what videos I had, and checked the keyboard for drugs. It felt like a complete personal violation. It's like airport security had turn into the child porn defend department.
"TrueCrypt is good, but my money says the NSA has a "master key" (ie they cracked the algorithms).
Algorithms for what? TrueCrypt is open source so someone would notice if there was a back door or at least it would become known the first time the authorities used that "master key" to get evidence.
Even if not, the argument they would use is that you must be a terrorist because you are hiding something.
This argument would not stand in court. Plenty of non terrorist non criminal people use encryption to keep important data safe in case their computer or data gets stolen.
Besides, it's impossible to prove that a file is encrypted. TrueCrypt can even make hidden volumes within encrypted files so that you could give the wrong password to the authorities and they would get the wrong set of data instead of the real thing.
On the other hand maybe the NSA has a quantum computer hidden away somewhere which would make any encryption we have available now practically useless.
even the CEO of Google expressed that sentiment not long ago.
Link, please!
Maybe searches of a laptop should not be allowed, however, it should be noted that in this case a paedophile was caught because of the search.
DHS could also share your data with other federal agencies or private entities for language translation, data decryption or "other reasons."TrueCrypt is good, but my money says the NSA has a "master key" (ie they cracked the algorithms).Even if not, the argument they would use is that you must be a terrorist because you are hiding something. The mass media and the population at large would buy into that in a heartbeat, even the CEO of Google expressed that sentiment not long ago.
Actually that's bs, because we are protected from such narrow minded assumptions by the Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act of 1999. However I wouldn't doubt that the NSA could or have cracked the level of encryption that truecrypt uses since they have already cracked the RSA algorithm :-/ .
Come on get the title right "Judge Places Limits on Airport Laptop Searches for Inbound International flights". None of this applies to domestic flights.
The law that allows officials to search laptops is only for international travelers arriving in the US anyways.
vaguely reminds me of that guy a few years ago who took his computer into a computer repair place, where they "happened" to find CP on it during the course of their snooping -- i mean repair work. his name got out etc. and he got fired, wife left him, etc. turns out, the file came from the repair place (meaning he was innocent the whole time). Big difference is that this guy actually did it.
NSA could or have cracked the level of encryption that truecrypt uses since they have already cracked the RSA algorithm :-/ .
Source, please!
please note that the pic was of a nude adolescent girl on a beach. a naked minor does not in and of itself = Child porn. The US law is quite clear: minor must be engaged in sexual activity or there must be "closeups" of the genitalia. That simple.
Source, please!
There is no source nor will there ever be, those in the know and in the INFOSEC business claim it as fact. Hell if kids of the University of Michigan(http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/09/1024-bit-rsa-encryption-cracked-by-carefully-starving-cpu-of-ele/) can bypass it I think it is safe to assume the NSA which has been openly opposed to RSA for over 2 decades have cracked it.
here's on to consider: a closeup shot of a FULLY clothed minor's genitalia would also be considered child porn.
How many people are they going to nab transporting illicit photos on their laptops? I just don't see the TSA having the time, manpower, or expertise to warrant these kinds of searches. Pointless, bordering on illegal...
not to mention that this was all supposedly for TERRORISTS. But now the Patriot Act is for everything. Really, let's just volunteer everything we say, do and think to the gov't and let's see how quickly there are more criminals than "non-criminals."
There is no source nor will there ever be, those in the know and in the INFOSEC business claim it as fact. Hell if kids of the University of Michigan
This is not cracking an encryption algorithm but exploiting a bug in order to snoop the password. If the NSA put a key logger in my keyboard that wouldn't be cracking the encryption but stealing the password.
Besides, if the NSA can do it, the FSB, GRU, MI5 and whatever their Chinese counterparts are can also do it and that means the whole concept of data security is screwed.
Maybe searches of a laptop should not be allowed, however, it should be noted that in this case a paedophile was caught because of the search.
If they allowed random home invasions with full computer checks they could probably find more pedophiles. Where do you draw the line? I don't think any of these searches should be allowed unless there is evidence pointing to the specific need.
This is not cracking an encryption algorithm but exploiting a bug in order to snoop the password. If the NSA put a key logger in my keyboard that wouldn't be cracking the encryption but stealing the password.Besides, if the NSA can do it, the FSB, GRU, MI5 and whatever their Chinese counterparts are can also do it and that means the whole concept of data security is screwed.
Not true. the NSA got crucial information regarding RSA over a decade ago. They wouldn't ever share any of their breakthroughs to other nations that's why THEY'RE THE NSA! Do I need to spell NSA out for you? They fact that they cracked it will never be released but it is in the INFOSEC community a commonly accepted assumption. This doesn't mean the internet will fail or data security is worthless now it just means YOU DONT FSCK with the NSA. If you aren't doing anything illegal there is nothing to fear.
Sounds like I'd either ship stuff home UPS, or dban it before bringing it.
Steganography is a much better option, imo, since they won't even know to go looking for it.
Good point, considering it's some what obvious when you encrypt stuff with TrueCrypt,etc.
The thing is that most of the laws enacted to protect us actually restrict and remove the freedoms we previously had.
Not all of us are terrorists, but all of us are treated like we are terrorists. All the lobbyists need to do is say the word terror in the title of their presentation and they will most likely achieve their goal and succeed in restricting our rights a little more.
They fact that they cracked it will never be released but it is in the INFOSEC community a commonly accepted assumption.
And Obama being born in Kenya is a commonly accepted assumption in the Birther community, yet it's also unsubstantiated bullshit.
This doesn't mean the internet will fail or data security is worthless now it just means YOU DONT FSCK with the NSA. If you aren't doing anything illegal there is nothing to fear.
If NSA can do it, any other intelligence service can do it or will be able to in a few years. There's nothing special about the NSA.
Maybe "cloud computing" is merely the efforts of big business to comply with the governments need to see every piece of data on all of us, and if we don't have local data anymore and it's all stored in the cloud, then the government can snoop to it's hearts content... NSA wins.
And Obama being born in Kenya is a commonly accepted assumption in the Birther community, yet it's also unsubstantiated bullshit..
really: http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress [...] in-hawaii/