Dataloss At The Border?

The US announced this week that they would be able to search laptops, or rather search the information on laptops without any reason being given. They have been able to search laptops for a while, but have needed to have a good reason, or suspicions, to do so. The result of this change is going to mean a number of things, firstly; longer delays to get in (hopefully they won’t be searching everybody’s data… else we could be waiting in line for weeks…) and secondly the possibility of data being compromised.

It is difficult to know what to suggest… if you are waiting to get into the US, especially if you are a visitor rather than a national, then you are unlikely to decline a request for them to look at the laptop contents - as that would no doubt give rise to a quick trip back home on the next plane. You probably wouldn’t want to leave the laptop there - just in case it gets lost. Perhaps it is time to look at all that information on there - and decide that it would be better left ‘at the office’ and the laptop is just a portal that you can use remotely. It will still take customs a while to go through an empty laptop - but at least there will be no chances of the data being compromised.

April 29, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

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