On: How Tracking Down My Stolen Computer Triggered a D...

[jorgem]

I speculate an ugly not-too-distant future: Mike crosses US border from Canada to US. Fancy government computers "lookup" Mike and flag his name because of suspicious posts on "hacker" news. Fun ensues, when agents discover hidden/encrypted partitions on computer. Computer impounded for further investigation. Mike has a bad day.

[mike-cardwell → jorgem]

I'll just overwrite that partition with random garbage and use the Windows honey-pot OS for the duration of my visit, restoring when I get home. Well I might. Or I might not. Plausible deniability anybody?

[winter_blue → mike-cardwell]

The random garbage will probably get you in deeper trouble than the encrypted data -- they'll think that it is encrypted data, and ask you to decrypt it. Since it's garbage, you won't be able to; and then... I'll leave the rest to you imagination ;)

Overall, it's probably better to just give them your encrypted data. If you're not doing anything illegal, you don't have much to worry about. In my case, my data consists of software projects, personal diary/e-mails, etc. Nothing incriminating.

In principle what they're doing is wrong (violating your privacy and searching you without a warrant), but in the long run it'll probably just save you time to comply. Unless you're doing anything illegal, giving them your data shouldn't really be a problem.

If they "accidentally" share / release NDA'd corporate data (never heard of this happening), you can always take them to court. Heck, you can even take them to court for searching you without a warrant.

[bigiain → winter_blue]

"Heck, you can even take them to court for searching you without a warrant."

Not at a border crossing - at least not for a non-US resident.

[jorgem → bigiain]

Actually you can be searched by federal agents inside the US within 100 miles of any "edge" of the border, even if you are not crossing...

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/10/aclu-assails-10/

[jeza → mike-cardwell]

Maybe it'd be safer to swap out the hard drive with a brand new one before crossing the border? :)

[MichaelApproved → mike-cardwell]

Once they decide to investigate further, you won't have time or ability to wipe out the drive.

[LiveTheDream → MichaelApproved]

The point is that they cannot distinguish the encrypted partition from random garbage.

[dkersten → jorgem]

But thanks to full disk encryption, his data is still safe from agents snooping through his cat photo collection!

[DanBC → dkersten]

They just keep him in prison until he gives them a password.

Luckily he's not identified as a terrorist. Because those people are subject to extraordinary rendition and intense interrogation techniques, and detained without trial.

[jorgem → DanBC]

Maybe this is a valid case for "security through obscurity". If you don't publicly proclaim you're doing something like this, who knows to look?

[NinetyNine → jorgem]

Pair that with a slightly stronger form of data hiding by using TrueCrypt's hidden partition feature to encrypt the second OS partition. Just make sure not to ever boot into the honeypot os afterwards, or it could overwrite parts of the hidden partition. You can safely load the honeypot os by typing in the hidden password as well so that true crypt can load the proper partition boundaries.