Protecting your data while traveling

[reader]

From NY Times

 

Travelers, beware: When you take your gadgets abroad, maintaining the security of the data on your devices is just as important as protecting yourself from muggers.

 

For whatever reason, foreign and domestic governments may have an interest in your personal data, including your social media accounts.

 

This is not just theoretical. Several travelers, including American citizens like Haisam Elsharkawi, were recently pressured into giving officers from the United States Customs and Border Protection access to their cellphones at the airport.

 

Some travelers now face additional privacy risks because of a new regulation that separates them from their computing equipment. This week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that passengers traveling from eight majority-Muslim countries to the United States could not bring devices larger than cellphones onto planes. So computers, tablets and other devices will have to be stowed in checked luggage.

 

What to do? There’s one thing all the experts agree on: Do not lie to government officials about your passwords or social media accounts.

 

“They’d make your life miserable if they found that out,” said Jeremiah Grossman, the head of security strategy for SentinelOne, a computer security company.

 

But there are methods for safeguarding your cellphones, tablets and computers from invasive searches, all while remaining honest. Here are some of the best tips, based on interviews with security and forensics specialists.

 

The best way to prevent your information from being searched is to travel with a device that never had any of your data in the first place.

 

It’s a wise idea to invest in a so-called travel device, a cheap smartphone or computer that you use only abroad: You don’t want your nice equipment to get lost or stolen while traveling, anyway, let alone searched by border agents. So leave your fancy equipment — along with your photo album, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter apps — at home.

 

Fingerprint sensors, like the ones found on many Apple and Android smartphones, are a nifty security feature for unlocking your phone quickly. But Jonathan Zdziarski, a security researcher who has taught forensics courses to law enforcement agencies on collecting data from smartphones, said your best bet when traveling was to turn the feature off.

 

That’s because in the United States, law enforcement agencies have successfully used warrants to compel people to unlock their cellphones with a fingerprint. But because of your right to remain silent, it would be tough (though not impossible) for the federal government to force you to share your passcode. So disabling your fingerprint sensor when traveling is generally a safer move.

 

Article continues at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/technology/personaltech/crossing-the-border-heres-how-to-safeguard-your-data-from-searches.html

[steveboy]

One finds online backup places that offer the storage of 5 GB of data for free.

It must be hard to generate so much data in a vacation, and even the data one likes to have available, like emails and some questionable pictures, may not reach that amount.

 

So at the destination, one can recover the data stored online, and before returning one backs it up to the online storage and deletes it from the device.  With the data on the device, one protects it with password, without it one can leave it unprotected.

 

For more refined security to avoid files left behind hidden by the operating system, one can work within a virtual operating system.

[Guest]

I have no data that I need to hide from the authorities upon returning home.

 

Even the naturist photos have a corresponding photo of an ID card as proof of age.

 

Where I might need to take more care is when entering a less tolerant country, but I do tend to avoid the actively intolerant ones.   Iran & anywhere out that way.

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

 

WASHINGTON - The Central Intelligence Agency is able to permanently infect an Apple Mac computer so that even reinstalling the operating system will not erase the bug, according to documents published Thursday by WikiLeaks.

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/1220021/cia-also-can-bug-your-apple-wikileaks

[ChristianPFC]

Storing data online gives easy access to security agencies, and to hackers as well? Anyway, I would want all data twice, so deleting from my hard driving and having only online would not be an option for me.

 

When I travel, I log out of all accounts, so whoever get the device, at least doesn't have access to social media and others. Anyway a good idea to limit social networks, emails and other stuff, and log out after use. This way you use password regularly and don't forget it.

 

A "travel device" is probably best solution.

[Guest abang1961]

This is what I think:

I am just a normal human being, a man in the street of ZERO importance/threat to others.

I lost my phone three months ago due to neglect (putting the bag on the table in a food court) in Malaysia.

Once I received my new phone, I did a quick activation and realised that nothing was missing in all my accounts.

[Alexx]

Once I received my new phone, I did a quick activation and realised that nothing was missing in all my accounts.

Isn't that the beauty? You can "steal" data, and yet it won't be missing.

[forky123]

1) Password - Just because it says word doesn't mean it has to be one. Choosing a word and adding a number or substituting characters (Dilbert1 or D1lb3rt) makes for fairly easy cracks. If you have a favourite book/poem/song pick favourite lines of text and substitute for numbers, capitals, special characters - @B0n2bt!tQ (To be or not to be, that is the question with substitutions Makes it fairly hard to crack).

2) Don't use the same password for different things.

3) Know what you are syncing to the cloud. Do you set up things as default without reading what it's doing? Good luck with that.

4) Having had my iPhone pickpocketted in Thailand last trip I will be using a cheap travel phone in future. Though I managed to erase it remotely once they powered it on, it was still worrying for a while.

5) Clear browsing history and caches before you travel. Depending on your settings, passwords, etc can be stored. Though I'm not really into anything too embarrassing why give them reason to search deeper?

[ChristianPFC]

I lost my phone three months ago due to neglect (putting the bag on the table in a food court) in Malaysia.

 

Did you lose it or was it stolen? Not clear from your post.

[Guest abang1961]

To prevent further loss of wallets and mobile phones, I recommend attaching a chain (metal or elastic plastic) to it.

One end goes to the phone and the other end to the hook on your trousers.

Get one that is at least 15 inches long..who knows, that addition of a metal chain could be a new fashion statement for FARANGS like us. 。。 don't they just look macho like those Harley Davidson's cyclists?

 

 

 

 

[steveboy]

Storing data online gives easy access to security agencies, and to hackers as well? Anyway, I would want all data twice, so deleting from my hard driving and having only online would not be an option for me.

 

When I travel, I log out of all accounts, so whoever get the device, at least doesn't have access to social media and others. Anyway a good idea to limit social networks, emails and other stuff, and log out after use. This way you use password regularly and don't forget it.

 

A "travel device" is probably best solution.

 

Yes, I like the idea of the "travel device".  I will convert my lightest and smallest laptop to such a device erasing everything that is not relevant to travel, and then load it on vacation by downloading, uploading data from an online backup site.

 

I doubt that security agencies can have access to such data.  To begin with, the account on such site is anonymous, and any trace of it can be erased from the browser by clearing the browsing data.  About hackers, all the files I download, upload would be encrypted.  I can even leave the 'truecrypt' program installed when crossing a border, having the encrypted files away backed up online.  

 

About loss of data if the online site crashes, burns,  I could lose the little data added on vacation.  The important data to have is the historical one, all my emails, favorite sex files and other logs from the last years, which I like to have just in case,  and which is already stored at home.

[Guest abang1961]

Simply buy a new hard disc, 2 TB or more to store all the wonderful files.

The laptop should be almost reset to factory setting when you travel.

Every essential is copied onto a thumb drive/SD for phones.

[steveboy]

Simply buy a new hard disc, 2 TB or more to store all the wonderful files.

 

WOW, 2 TB may be necessary if one travels with the Library of Congress...

 

More practical is to create a bootable operating system on a cheap, say, 32 GB USB flash drive.

This not only can be carried through immigration in a side pocket and thrown away if necessary, but it can convert other PCs into one's own if there is a situation like I had years ago when I forgot my PC at the TSA checking station at my departing airport.

[vinapu]

Going through so much trouble it's really worth of travelling ? All those prescriptions above sound like busy day at work at IT department. 

[vinapu]

 

 

Where I might need to take more care is when entering a less tolerant country, but I do tend to avoid the actively intolerant ones.   Iran & anywhere out that way.

Unfortunately tolerant countries  will be ones trying to put you in trouble.

 

Flying in Tehran from Bangkok as long as you have visa you will be waved through, try the same with Los Angeles or Detroit, chances are you will be asked what you were doing there and perhaps they will want to see some vacation pictures on your phone / camera. Speaking from personal experience on all three accounts.

[forky123]

Flying in Tehran from Bangkok as long as you have visa you will be waved through, try the same with Los Angeles or Detroit.

That's what he said. Intolerant countries such as Iran and Trumpski's USA.

[reader]

Unfortunately tolerant countries  will be ones trying to put you in trouble.

 

Flying in Tehran from Bangkok as long as you have visa you will be waved through, try the same with Los Angeles or Detroit, chances are you will be asked what you were doing there and perhaps they will want to see some vacation pictures on your phone / camera. Speaking from personal experience on all three accounts.

 

Ditto Detroit.

[Guest]

A British citizen was arrested & detained in Morocco for several weeks for having gay pictures on his phone.    That's the kind of intolerant country I'm thinking of.  

 

When returning home to he UK, I have zero concerns.

[steveboy]

When returning home to he UK, I have zero concerns.

 

Yes, it was many years since Oscar Wilde was sent to prison for being gay.

[forky123]

And only 35 days since a gay Canadian was stopped from entering the US because his Scruff profile said he was "looking for loads" and border protection took that to mean he was a gay escort. He then tried to gain entry a second time after wiping his phone of all gay apps, etc but was stopped again for having a wiped phone and because they now had a permanent record of his "actions" as well as storing the details of his accounts and passwords.

[vinapu]

And only 35 days since a gay Canadian was stopped from entering the US because his Scruff profile said he was "looking for loads" and border protection took that to mean he was a gay escort. He then tried to gain entry a second time after wiping his phone of all gay apps, etc but was stopped again for having a wiped phone and because they now had a permanent record of his "actions" as well as storing the details of his accounts and passwords.

so it looks that taking telephone with him was like taking own rope to the gallows.

[firecat69]

Ditto Detroit. Multiple entries LAX with no problems. Toronto is the other airport I avoid!

[Guest]

And only 35 days since a gay Canadian was stopped from entering the US because his Scruff profile said he was "looking for loads" and border protection took that to mean he was a gay escort. He then tried to gain entry a second time after wiping his phone of all gay apps, etc but was stopped again for having a wiped phone and because they now had a permanent record of his "actions" as well as storing the details of his accounts and passwords.

Presuming that comment was the only incriminating evidence, it's a disgrace.

In liberal democracies, the media should be kicking up such a stink that the immigration authorities cannot get away with that.

Although, with Trump in charge, I doubt things will move in the right direction.

 

As for laptops, well I travel on holiday & just take a phone & tablet.  Or often 2 tablets, with a small cheaper one as an e-reader for the beach.

My PC stays at home. 

All this is for convenience & mass reduction, not security.  Although it must be said, the tablets fit in ANY hotel safe, whereas laptops only fit in the larger laptop safes.

[forky123]

Full account here but no idea how reliable the source is http://www.dailyxtra.com/canada/news-and-ideas/news/us-customs-block-canadian-man-reading-scruff-profile-215531. There have been many accounts of heavy handed border protection since Trumpski started his persecution. I think the problem for news outlets at the moment is the sheer volume of fairly outrageous occurrences over the last couple of months.

 

I think given the current trend in the White House, Attila the Hun would be considered liberal.

 

I never take a laptop, preferring my iPad Pro. One thing I always do is make sure the hotel has an in-room safe. That's anywhere I go and not limited to,Thailand.

[steveboy]

Full account here but no idea how reliable the source is http://www.dailyxtra.com/canada/news-and-ideas/news/us-customs-block-canadian-man-reading-scruff-profile-215531. There have been many accounts of heavy handed border protection since Trumpski started his persecution. I think the problem for news outlets at the moment is the sheer volume of fairly outrageous occurrences over the last couple of months.

 

I think given the current trend in the White House, Attila the Hun would be considered liberal.

 

I never take a laptop, preferring my iPad Pro. One thing I always do is make sure the hotel has an in-room safe. That's anywhere I go and not limited to,Thailand.

 

My travel laptop fits inside the in-room safe at Babylon.  But I never put it there, since I attach it to a cable lock.  The small 12 inch Acer is cheaper than any Apple device, and only an inferior robber should be tempted by it.

 

Before reading about here, I had never thought about the liability of having questionable content on the PC, but now I will take precautions.  No big thing, have plenty of time in vacation to do some of that.