Bruce Schneier Gives Tips On Securing Laptops Against Customs Agents

Los Angeles (CA) - Last month US Federal Courts ruled that Customs agents didn’t require probable cause to search laptops and other electronics. But how do you secure your laptop against nosy agents and indeed anyone else who gets a hold of your laptop? Computer security expert Bruce Schneier gave the Guardian UK paper some basic tips on protecting your data.

Schneier says encryption is the main defense, but that scrambling the entire hard drive is probably a bad idea. Agents will likely hold you even longer and demand that you give them the password, according to Schneier. Instead, he suggests that people use open source programs to encrypt portions of their drives using a strong password.

Most people just leave all types of junk on their drives and Schneier also suggests cleaning all that crap up with a secure file deletion program.

For more tips read Schneier’s article at Guardian UK.