Court Ruling on Electronic Border Searches

From SANS NewsBites Vol. 10 Num. 35

(April 23, 30 & May 1, 2008)
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) is warning members "and all business travelers to limit proprietary information on laptop computers when crossing US borders." ACTE issued the warning after an April 21 federal appeals court decision that "gives customs officials the unfettered authority to examine, copy, and seize traveler's laptops - - without reasonable suspicion." The decision covers a range of electronic devices; in addition to seizing data from laptops, US Customs and Border protection officials can seize data from cell phones, handheld computers, digital cameras and USB drives. The EFF, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Business Travel Coalition have written a letter asking that the House Committee on Homeland Security "consider legislation to prevent abusive search practices by border agents and protect all Americans against suspicionless digital border inspections."

Computerworld
ACTE
The Register

[Editor's Note (Ranum): It's as if someone in the administration mistook his copy of "1984" for a road-map not a novel.
(Schultz): Customs officials' ability to seize any kind of property without reasonable suspicion lamentably once again shows the current level of disregard for individual rights in the United States. Big brother is not only watching; big brother is being totalitarian.
(Honan) A number of organisations outside the US have banned staff from travelling to the US with laptops or other electronic devices.]

It's bad enough that trojans and adware can spy on your every move, or that lost and stolen laptops can expose reams of confidential data, but now the US government also wants in on the action. In the name of the War on Terror.

This is like everything America does. The rest of the world will simply have to accept that that's the way it's going to be. We can hope that US citizens will do something about it, but until then it might be a better idea to give us a call to setup a VPN that you can use to remotely access confidential data directly from your network rather than trying to carry it into the US on a laptop.

It's probably a better idea anyway when one considers the prevalence of laptop theft.