3 ms·

Or if you travel on airplanes. I have twice had my laptop taken in the backroom by security where I am pretty sure they copied my hard drive.

cantrevealname 4y ago
Can you tell us more about the circumstances? Do you mean airport security screening or do you means customs and immigration? Why were picked? Did they ask for your login / BIOS / disk encryption passwords? For how long were they away with your laptop? What did you do afterward (like wipe the disk in case they installed a surveillance tool)?
- brokenmachine 4y ago
  Complete speculation... but they're security grunts, not digital forensic experts. At best, they probably just plug it into a black box and that box searches what it can for certain file hashes or names. Encrypted disk and it's game over. Unless they're specifically looking for your data in particular - then all bets are off. Not sure what they'd do with most modern laptops that have soldered drives though. Happy to be corrected. I believe they often ask for your passwords at the border too. I read that some borders also ask for your social media accounts, not sure if they want passwords for those too. Would be interesting to set up a honeypot of sorts that records everything they do when they login to your device. Could even activate the camera and mic recording. It seems unbelievable that it's accepted that they can walk away with your device and login as you and then do whatever they want. I've seen on border patrol shows the guards going through messages on the phone looking for evidence of an intent to take paid work, etc. But it looks like a pretty surface-level manual search, at least the part they show on TV. Surely somebody on here has had experience in this from the other side?
- kornhole 4y ago
  Answered in above response. They took it long enough to make a copy. These were random searches. I have flown around the planet way too many times.
hn_throwaway_69 4y ago
>where I am pretty sure they copied my hard drive What evidence do you have, leaving aside speculation or conjecture? Can you state it any higher than it was possible they copied your hard drive? Is this a routine occurrence where you live?
- crossroadsguy 4y ago
  > What evidence Well I am pretty sure the personnel liked GP’s laptop colour and just wanted to admire it in privacy. Or maybe lick it as well; and possibly passing around among themselves so that more could lick it.
crossroadsguy 4y ago
Was it routine, or you fall under some “profiled” demographic? You didn’t mention the country, should I assume US of A? Or it happens elsewhere as well? Ever been forced to open the laptop or phone as well?
- kornhole 4y ago
  This happened to me at airports in Israel and Germany. I am a US citizen and was not in any category of suspicion. This happens with US airport security too. I was dumb back then and did not encrypt my drive. They did ask me to boot up the laptop first probably to ensure it wasn't encrypted. If this ever happens to me again, I will refuse to decrypt the drive.
  - jillesvangurp 4y ago
    You might end up locked up or otherwise inconvenienced. You have less rights than you might think in situations like that. Leave the laptop at home or wipe it before you leave. Same with phones. They can't take what isn't there.
    - kornhole 4y ago
      Resistance is fertile. I will demand they call the embassy if they push it. I travel for work and need functional devices.
      - brokenmachine 4y ago
        They'll just refuse you entry. Why would they care about your work?
midoridensha 4y ago
How long did they have your laptop? Hard drives on laptops these days are frequently 500GB or 1TB, and copying 1TB of data from one of these is not a quick operation at all.

cantrevealname 4y ago

Can you tell us more about the circumstances? Do you mean airport security screening or do you means customs and immigration? Why were picked? Did they ask for your login / BIOS / disk encryption passwords? For how long were they away with your laptop? What did you do afterward (like wipe the disk in case they installed a surveillance tool)?

brokenmachine 4y ago
Complete speculation... but they're security grunts, not digital forensic experts. At best, they probably just plug it into a black box and that box searches what it can for certain file hashes or names. Encrypted disk and it's game over. Unless they're specifically looking for your data in particular - then all bets are off. Not sure what they'd do with most modern laptops that have soldered drives though. Happy to be corrected. I believe they often ask for your passwords at the border too. I read that some borders also ask for your social media accounts, not sure if they want passwords for those too. Would be interesting to set up a honeypot of sorts that records everything they do when they login to your device. Could even activate the camera and mic recording. It seems unbelievable that it's accepted that they can walk away with your device and login as you and then do whatever they want. I've seen on border patrol shows the guards going through messages on the phone looking for evidence of an intent to take paid work, etc. But it looks like a pretty surface-level manual search, at least the part they show on TV. Surely somebody on here has had experience in this from the other side?
kornhole 4y ago
Answered in above response. They took it long enough to make a copy. These were random searches. I have flown around the planet way too many times.

hn_throwaway_69 4y ago

>where I am pretty sure they copied my hard drive What evidence do you have, leaving aside speculation or conjecture? Can you state it any higher than it was possible they copied your hard drive? Is this a routine occurrence where you live?

crossroadsguy 4y ago
> What evidence Well I am pretty sure the personnel liked GP’s laptop colour and just wanted to admire it in privacy. Or maybe lick it as well; and possibly passing around among themselves so that more could lick it.

crossroadsguy 4y ago

Was it routine, or you fall under some “profiled” demographic? You didn’t mention the country, should I assume US of A? Or it happens elsewhere as well? Ever been forced to open the laptop or phone as well?

kornhole 4y ago
This happened to me at airports in Israel and Germany. I am a US citizen and was not in any category of suspicion. This happens with US airport security too. I was dumb back then and did not encrypt my drive. They did ask me to boot up the laptop first probably to ensure it wasn't encrypted. If this ever happens to me again, I will refuse to decrypt the drive.
- jillesvangurp 4y ago
  You might end up locked up or otherwise inconvenienced. You have less rights than you might think in situations like that. Leave the laptop at home or wipe it before you leave. Same with phones. They can't take what isn't there.
  - kornhole 4y ago
    Resistance is fertile. I will demand they call the embassy if they push it. I travel for work and need functional devices.
    - brokenmachine 4y ago
      They'll just refuse you entry. Why would they care about your work?

midoridensha 4y ago

How long did they have your laptop? Hard drives on laptops these days are frequently 500GB or 1TB, and copying 1TB of data from one of these is not a quick operation at all.