More security at US Customs!

[rxpharm]

A similar topic to this was discussed back in May regarding SFO customs.

A recent court ruling determined it is ok for Homeland Security to search a laptop without a warrant.

The story is here: Court laptop search decision

The person in this case was not allowed into Canada for a business trip, due to a criminal record. On return to US, his laptop was seized and searched by Homeland Security. Using a forensic data recovery program they discovered child porn images in the cache of his browser, even though it was deleted. He was sentenced to 2 concurrent terms of 10 to 15 years for knowingly receiving and knowingly possessing child pornagraphy. His lawyer appealed and the appeals court upheld the right of homeland security to seize and search laptops without a warrant.

Be careful out there, and do not give homeland security or customs in any country a reason to stop you to search/seize your laptop. This case happened because of denied entry into Canada due to a prior criminal record.

This is the link for the previous May post on SFO customs:
SFO Customs

Big Brother is watching you!

[BAM]

Well if you don€™t have €˜Kiddie Porn€™ on your computer then you don€™t have anything to worry about. This guy got what he deserved and Customs did just what their trained to do.. and got this jerk.

[stogie bear]

I agree...

Nabbing freaks trumps my privacy any day!

[rxpharm]

Yes, true - child porn is definitely illegal, but for all members who like photos of lbs appearing to be younger than 18, remember the appearance of child porn is just as problematic on the laptop should you be stopped, searched and seized.

So Be Careful Out There!

[Torurot]

Who's to say what will be next on Customs hit list. Perhaps they don't like LB either. Encrypted folders the only answer?

[katoeylover]

Don't take your laptops with you if you think you've got something to hide

[Guest]

(Torurot @ Jul. 27 2006,19:52) Who's to say what will be next on Customs hit list. Perhaps they don't like LB either. Encrypted folders the only answer?

How would that help? If they wanted to see a folder on your laptop that was encrypted, they would just ask you for the key to open it.

How could you refuse? That's like carrying a locked box in your luggage and then telling the customs guy he can't look inside because you won't give him the key (or don't have it).

Good luck with that.

[stogie bear]

There is a huge difference between kiddy porn and ladyboy porn.

Adults can do what they like - kids usually are coerced into something they either don't understand or don't really enjoy.

Kiddy porn and religeon are no-nos on any sane persons agenda.

No one on this site would think that kids under the legal age of consent has a place providing adult entertainment here or anywhere.

[Guest]

(stogie bear @ Jul. 27 2006,19:08)  

I agree...

Nabbing freaks trumps my privacy any day!

Respectfully, Stogie, I think you need to rethink you view here.

The guy wasn't carrying kiddie porn around, as I understand it. They searched the cache of his browser and resurected deleted images from the net. We don't alwasy control what ends up in the cache of our browsers, do we?

Let's say you log onto a site someday because you follow a link that seems to go one place and you find yourself on a child porn site instead. So you shake you head in disgust, move on to another site, and never think a thing about it.

Then, oh say a year or so later, some gung ho customs guy does a number on your laptop and.....GASP! he finds images from that child porn site still there in your browser cache (you can't get rid of them just by clearning your cache, you know).

How quick would you be to cheer then?

[stogie bear]

You mean - he accidently stumbled on a child porno site, downloaded 40 pics and the day before he was due to travel he deleted them after they had been on his computer for weeks and customs just happened to locate them by chance?

Sorry, mate... He's doing 15 years inside because he broke the law.

Nobody accidently downloads 42 pics of child porn!

And customs wouldn't have been so thorough if they hadn't known what to look for!

Nothing stays in your cache for a year anyway! Most people have it set to 21 days. Mine is set to 3. After that it is deleted from your computer to make room for new 'cached' browsings. If everything you browsed on the internet stayed on your computer then it would be full in a month!

Sorry - this guy broke the law and whether or not it's a good law or a bad one he knowingly did something stupid.

This reminds me of the bloke I knew who was a teacher... he smoked pot and was reported by his school. The cops put him away and even in court he thought that 'it's only pot' was a sound defence!

Total twat and deserves to rot inside for being stupid if nothing else!

[BAM]

(stogie bear @ Jul. 28 2006,18:04) Nothing stays in your cache for a year anyway! Most people have it set to 21 days. Mine is set to 3. After that it is deleted from your computer to make room for new 'cached' browsings.

Since the Hard Drive is responsible for the storage of data it's really all to do with the way a Hard Drive and OS work together. Deleting files on your system and clearing the browser cache dose not remove these files from the Hard Drive. The system simply dealocates the space on the drive that these files have used... the files are still there and can remain there for a very long time only until something else is written into the same space on top of the old files you had through were deleted. Since there is no way to be fully informed that the deleted files have really been deleted the best way to make sure is to defrag the drive ever month and run a cleaning program like Best Wipe that will write random garbage into unused areas of the drive to be sure that anything left over in there is for sure destroyed.

http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/bcwipe3.htm

[Guest]

Exactly right, Bam. It's scary that people as sophisticated as Stogie don't already know that. Him saying that his cache is 'set' to a few days and then, after that, everything is gone leaves me slackjawed.

Worse, Stogie, you keep talking about this guy 'downloading' pictures. How do you know that? Your cache holds everything that is loaded on any page of any web site you view, including images. You don't have to voluntarily download a damn thing for it to end up in your cache and stay there for, yes, maybe years (unless it is overwriten by chance or you carefully clean the empty space on your drive).

I'm not defending this guy in particular. He may in fact be the low-life kiddie raper you apparently think he is. I haven't got a clue. All I'm saying is that you're condemning him solely on the basis of something that could happen to anyone of us. Anyone.

[stogie bear]

He got 15 years for KNOWINGLY having kiddi porn. That means he knew he had it!

I doubt very much if he accidently downloaded over 40 pics by accident or by innocently stumbling onto a kiddy-porn site.

If it was so easy for us to have this stuff on our computers he wouldn't have got 15 years hard time.

Mind you - 15 years seems pretty heavy handed!

I'm aware that stuff stays on your computer longer than simply deleting it! I made a mistake suggesting that deleting stuff would get rid of it!

[stogie bear]

I did a little digging and found that he had websites in his favourites folder as well as pics. He was supposedly receiving 'treatment' for this but admitted that it wasn't working! This guy, Romm, admitted to investigators that he used Google to search for child pornography, and that his "therapy" had failed to help him quit.

[Guest]

Okay, my brother, peace.

You've convinced me the guy's a low life who deserved to get nailed before he did anyone any harm, although I also agree that the fifteen years sounds pretty heavy-handed, at least based on what has been made public.

Still, the issue of stuff being in your cache that you don't want there, maybe didn't even intend to be there, is a serious one in light of the apparently growing frequency of laptop searches. Maybe this discussion has caused a few people to think about it when otherwise they might not have. I hope so.