Big Brother, 21st Century Style

[kallend 2,182]

The Right to Travel
WWNK Newsletter
By Doug Hornig

In our November 28 issue, we explored one new limitation on
Americans' right to travel freely, what we called the "ultimate
no-fly list." But there are a couple of other surveillance items
about which travelers should know.

Do you own a laptop computer? Do you routinely travel with it?

If so, you might want to consider taking a few precautions, because
evidence is mounting that federal officials are legally (and, so they
say, "randomly") opening a growing number of laptops owned by
passengers returning to the U.S. And perusing their contents.

The vast majority of travelers don't realize that customs agents have
the legal authority to do this. Computers may also be seized and held
indefinitely, without the agents having to obtain probable cause that
a crime has been committed. Victims of seizures have no right to know
why they've been targeted.

While you may be unaware that this has been going on, the Association
of Corporate Travel Executives is not. The ACTE, an international
trade group representing corporate travel managers, is concerned
about the potential loss of proprietary information, and Susan
Gurley, its executive director, wrote the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) in early November, in an attempt to clarify policy.

"Are copies made of the information?" Gurley asked. "What safeguards
do you have in place? Is the information downloaded and/or mirrored
and stored somewhere, and if yes, for how long? Who has access to it?"

As of now, we don't believe the DHS has yet responded, but if laptop
guidelines are similar to those for ATS, detailed below, we doubt
we'll like the answers.

New York Times writer Joe Sharkey published one instance of seizure
that could have happened to most anyone, quoting a correspondent who
wrote him that "as he returned from a business trip to Europe, his
laptop was seized in what he said he was told was a random search.

"'After giving me and my shoes a thorough search, they moved on to my
laptop,' he wrote. 'On the desktop I had a folder named "Blueprints"
which contained, as labeled, blueprints for several potential designs
for our company's expansion in Madrid and Houston.'

"He added, 'My laptop was initially searched by one person, but he
called for backup,' when he saw the blueprints. 'It seemed they were
convinced I was sent to plant bombs in those nonexistent buildings.'
He said he hasn't seen the laptop since."

How to protect yourself? Eddie Baron, a professor at the University
of Oklahoma, suggests storing your data files on a flash drive and
packing it in your checked luggage.

Sharkey quotes Jack Riepe, a spokesman for the ACTE, who has another
alternative: "I got a file on my desktop called 'Terrorist Notes.'
I'm keeping notes on writing a thriller, but maybe I should change
the file to 'Grandma's Favorite Cookie Recipes'." That might help,
unless they Google Riepe and find that he once wrote a book entitled,
Politically Correct Cigar Smoking for Social Terrorists. Then he can
kiss his computer good-bye.

Ultimate no-fly lists, laptop seizures. What else is in the works?

The next level of "security" the DHS has on tap for us will employ a
sophisticated program called the Automated Targeting System
(ATS)--originally designed simply to track cargo--that's linked to a
massive database containing detailed information on countless
millions of Americans and others.

The database has been silently filling up for the past four years. In
the process, it's been generating "scores" that rate the risk the
traveler is a criminal or terrorist. Currently, it's estimated to
contain over 5 billion records and in 2003, according to the
Transportation Research Board, it was consulted 766 million times
with regard to 475 million travelers.

The DHS says risk profiles will be maintained for 40 years, "the
potentially active lifespan of individuals associated with terrorism
or other criminal activities." If that sounds reasonable to you,
consider that the database is not confined to known terrorists or criminals.

Anyone who travels may be in there and, according to the DHS, ATS is
aimed at ferreting out high-risk individuals who "may not have been
previously associated with a law enforcement action or otherwise be
noted as a person of concern to law enforcement." Beyond that, DHS
asserts, "the risk assessment for individuals who are deemed low risk
will be relevant if their risk profile changes in the future."

Who gets to decide when or if that has happened? They do. And what
are their criteria for making the call? They're not saying. Can you
challenge or even see your risk profile? No.

Amid all this secrecy, what we do know is that a traveler's profile
is stunningly detailed, containing, in the government's own words,
"every possible type of information from a variety of federal, state
and local sources." That would include such obvious things as
criminal records, and phone and Social Security numbers, but also
where you came from, where you've been, how you paid for your ticket,
your motor vehicle records, credit card info, any past one-way
travel, your seat preferences, and what kind of meals you tend to order.

David Sobel, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, calls
it "probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed
in terms of the number of people affected."

But the information is secure, right? Hardly.

The Federal Register notice revealed that some or all ATS data may be
shared with state, local and foreign governments for use in hiring
decisions and in granting licenses, security clearances, contracts
and other situations. In some cases, the data may be given to courts,
Congress or even private contractors.

As Stephen Yale-Loehr, of the Cornell Law School, tersely put it:
"Everybody else can see it, but you can't."

DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen confirmed that, "We have the authority and
the ability to do [risk assessments] for passengers coming by land
and sea," but added that the department has not as yet been
conducting assessments on travelers at land crossings.

But that, he says, is for logistical reasons. Given government's
proclivity for expanding into all possible niches, we suspect that
any contrary logistics will soon be overcome.

If you are hit with unexplained supplementary searches or interviews,
can you squawk about it? Yes, at least for now. You may ask to speak
to a supervisor, and you may file a complaint with the Custom and
Border Protection's Customer Satisfaction Unit.

And with that, we wish you good luck.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[warpedskydiver 0]

John there are already chips in most any laptop that will give the government any information they want.

I think the inspection and possible HD cloning that takes place is merely being done by lesser intelligent monkeys that are not enlightened to the aforementioned fact.

No I will not provide the ID of that said chip.

If people really want to know look it up the answer is out there.

Posting said info can definately get you an "interview"
even if you aren't looking for employment

[n23x 0]

Sounds like the rant and rave of a looney without a reasonable source to back up.

edited: with regard to these magic chips the man uses to watch me watch porn

.jim

"Don't touch my fucking Easter eggs, I'll be back monday." ~JTFC

[warpedskydiver 0]

you go look it up it can be found

It was on a hardware site and pointed out to me by a engineer.

yeah I am getting a ride downtown today in Al Franken's flyin saucer

Call me a conspiracy nut?

Think again

[n23x 0]

So point me to "that hardware site", I will post it all over this place so that we can all take a good look and assess the validity of your previous statement.

.jim

"Don't touch my fucking Easter eggs, I'll be back monday." ~JTFC

[warpedskydiver 0]

contacting the guy right now.

[warpedskydiver 0]

This is not the same report but it will suffice.

This should get everything going in the discussion.

http://www.gnauk.co.uk/gnaa_dell/

[warpedskydiver 0]

BTW I don't state crap I can't back up.

[n23x 0]

Here's the link that I totally didn't receive from warpedskydiver anybody here on the forums.

http://www.gnauk.co.uk/gnaa_dell/

Poor soldering combined with DIP packaging, looks like the work of The Man, indeed!

While I don't discount the fact that it looks like a keystroke logger, I'm not even remotely convinced that the gub'ment put it there. Further, what's the mechanism to export the logged data? 2 Atmel uc's does not a wireless comm device make! Maybe it dials home through the keyboard?

It's concerning, but I will leave this one to those donning aluminum foil hats.

This is not to suggest that I don't think The Man is invading our privacy regularly, I'm just not convinced it's to this level, yet (ominous music)...

.jim

"Don't touch my fucking Easter eggs, I'll be back monday." ~JTFC

[christelsabine 1]

Quote

BTW I don't state crap I can't back up.

Woah. Learning something new every day - how to back-up crap?

LMAO

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[n23x 0]

he's got it all wrong, you USE the crap to do the backing up, not the other way around.

.jim

"Don't touch my fucking Easter eggs, I'll be back monday." ~JTFC

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

Woah. Learning something new every day - how to back-up crap?

LMAO

lots and LOTS of cheese can do it

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[SkyDekker 1,465]

Quote

This is not the same report but it will suffice.

This should get everything going in the discussion.

http://www.gnauk.co.uk/gnaa_dell/

bwahhhahahahhahahhhaahhahhha, that is some funny shit!!!!!!!

gnauk in the url stands for:

Gay Nigger Association of the UK. Part of the Gay Nigger Association of America.

They did some fun stuff with wikipedia though....

Maybe you don't say shit without being able to back "shit" up, but you are obviously very fucking gullible.....

[PhreeZone 20]

Bwhahah... good link for a laugh. I've got 2 dells here and neither of them have anything like that in them. I know since I've sodered on the board of one of them Also 4 megs storage, thats about enough to store 20 word documents or a day's worth of emails for me. Not much you are going to store there. There is no transfer mechinism to move the data off the "device".

I commented on the issue of DHS taking laptops months ago. They have successfully arrested at least one person for trafficing in child porn after they seized his laptop and searched it. This was a warrentless search that is now tied up in the courts because of that fact. There is a website out there that I can not recall that has a count of all the laptops the DHS has siezed so far, its upwards of 50-75 if I recall. This was just siezing the computer then releaseing the people.

I just took to encrypting the entire drive with 168 bit. If they want to read my drives that bad go crunch on the keys for months to get them.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[jenfly00 0]

Quote

Quote

BTW I don't state crap I can't back up.

Woah. Learning something new every day - how to back-up crap?

LMAO

It would appear that backing up crap takes up at least half his time.

In this case, I'm guessing he went to Google, in desperation, to try and find something (anything!) that would back up his usual ramblings. He found ...something, and triumphantly posted it.

Gay Nigger Association?!?!?!?! BWAHAHAHA!

-----------------------
"O brave new world that has such people in it".

[warpedskydiver 0]

NP we can all have a laugh sometime in person

[Zipp0 1]

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Create a hidden volume inside a text file(or any file) and store everything inside. You can also create a 'honey pot' of files, so if you are forced to open the hidden volume with your password, it will only reveal a few files that you don't care about. The rest stay hidden with a different password. It uses military grade encryption.

It's free, open source software.

Or leave the laptop at home.

--------------------------
Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[freeflir29 0]

Thank you! I have been meaning to get around to encryption for some time. I have to use my personal lap top for work a lot and some days the information ends up in a gray area. Classified or not? I'll feel better with it encrypted! The environment I work in is pretty high threat when it comes to Sigint.

[Zipp0 1]

Quote

Thank you! I have been meaning to get around to encryption for some time. I have to use my personal lap top for work a lot and some days the information ends up in a gray area. Classified or not? I'll feel better with it encrypted! The environment I work in is pretty high threat when it comes to Sigint.

I think I missed something..... sarcasm?

Anyway, you shouldn't be putting any classified info on a personal use computer. That could land you in jail, or fired at the least.

--------------------------
Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[Andy9o8 3]

FWIW, both MS Word and WordPerfect let you lock files under a password. It's only medium-level encryption, but if the intruder isn't too savvy or sophisticated, that may be enough to keep him from opening the file.

[bazelos 0]

Quote

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Create a hidden volume inside a text file(or any file) and store everything inside. You can also create a 'honey pot' of files, so if you are forced to open the hidden volume with your password, it will only reveal a few files that you don't care about. The rest stay hidden with a different password. It uses military grade encryption.

It's free, open source software.

Or leave the laptop at home.

They won't be searching there long enough...they can't! It's bat county!







p.s. That looks pretty cool, thanks for the link!

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

you shouldn't be putting any classified info on a personal use computer.

Really? I have been working for the govt since 1991 and NO ONE has ever told me that!?!?!?!? (There's your sarcasm) I don't put class info on my computer. The problem is that most of the info I deal with that is of a sensitive nature never goes through any official channels. Therefor it never gets a "classification." However, I'm smart enough to realize how sensitive some of it is. I have to treat many of the reports I write as classed info even though it technically is not.

[Zipp0 1]

Quote

Quote

you shouldn't be putting any classified info on a personal use computer.

Really? I have been working for the govt since 1991 and NO ONE has ever told me that!?!?!?!? (There's your sarcasm) I don't put class info on my computer. The problem is that most of the info I deal with that is of a sensitive nature never goes through any official channels. Therefor it never gets a "classification." However, I'm smart enough to realize how sensitive some of it is. I have to treat many of the reports I write as classed info even though it technically is not.

I guess we'd call that 'SBU Data'.....

Just write your reports in crayon - then nobody will take the info seriously.

--------------------------
Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[PhreeZone 20]

Thats not encrption, thats encapsulation. And they both are weak since they can be stripped fairly easily and you have the raw document still in it. Acrobat is the same way.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

I guess we'd call that 'SBU Data'.....

That's what it says on 99% of the official stuff I deal with. Mainly because we have no proper way to transmit OR store classed items here. The whole situation is pretty frightening actually. I can't believe someone with sense AND power hasn't blown a gasket over the amount of info that they damn well know the bad guy is getting here. Drives me NUTS!


Edit- Of course I do often chuckle over the thought of a spy around here reading through all my DZ.com posts.