Three-judge panel unanimously says that border police may conduct random searches of laptops without search warrants or probable cause. These searches can include seizing the laptop and subjecting it to extensive forensic analysis.

This really isn't anything new. Travel outside the country has always implied a complete sacrifice of civil liberties. I'm not convinced that this is a good idea. The Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In an environment where people are constantly streaming across borders, random intrusive searches for any evidence of any crime goes far beyond the notion of border protection for national security purposes and becomes exactly the sort of dragnet that the Constitution was intended to prohibit. This seems rather obvious when you are talking about random forensic analysis of computers.

Frankly, I'm also becoming concerned about the war on child pornography possession. Although possession of child pornography certainly should be illegal, 10 and 15 year manditory prison sentences for clicking on the wrong website seems unreasonable. When you pile on the specter of random computer forensic analysis at border crossings and long term data retention requirements, the result is that you have something which threatens to do far more damage to civil liberties then the drug war ever did. Is this really necessary to protect children, or is it a political system running amuck with an emotionally charged issue?

Police blotter: Laptop border searches OK'd | CNET News.com

Yesterday I went to buy a PCMCIA Network card for my laptop. Its an old Sony Vaio ultrathin which dual boots Mandrake 9.1/Windows 98. I settled on DLINKS 690TXD because it was the cheapest, and had no dongle.

The box simply listed the hardware specs needed for both PPC and x86 architectures, no OS requirements. It does say it comes with drivers for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux 2.2+.

However they don't have precompiled Linux Driver. Instead they have dfe690.c as well as 2K Text file on using GCC to compile the driver, and use in a range of distros, including making loadable Kernal Modules.

DLINK, my hat goes off to you.

(On an interesting side note, Windows 98 still refuses to work with this card, but Linux detected it automatically.)

Dlink 690TXD and Linux : Wow!

] new modes of musicianship in the age of mobile computing
] and digital networks

Laptop Music - WikiTsotso

] He said he discovered the problem this weekend through a
] random finding in a Sacramento Dumpster, where a Cingular
] store had discarded records about a customer's insurance
] claim for a lost phone. By simply typing in a URL listed
] on the detritus, Lamo was taken to the customer's claim
] page on a site run by lock\line LLC, which provides the
] claim management services to Cingular.
]
] Normally, this page should have been reachable only by
] passing through a password-protected gateway, but by
] simply entering the valid URL, Lamo discovered that
] individual claims pages could be accessed, no password
] authentication needed.
]
] Each page contained the customer's name, address and
] phone number, along with details on the insurance claim
] being made. Altering the claim ID numbers (which were
] assigned sequentially) in the URL gave Lamo access to the
] entire history of Cingular claims processed through
] lock\line, comprising some 2.5 million customer claims
] dating back to 1998.

Bet Cingular is embarassed as hell to be exposed by a wandering hacker. Later in the article it mentions that "Lamo, 22, doesn't have a permanent address. He wanders cross-country on foot or by public bus. Spring and summer usually bring him to Northern California. Until recently, he used terminals at Kinko's to perform his hacks. He has graduated to using a Wi-Fi-ready laptop at Starbucks to do his work."

Wired News: Lamo Hacks Cingular Claims Site

] In a step toward electronic newspapers and wearable
] computer screens, scientists have created an ultra-thin
] screen that can be bent, twisted and even rolled up and
] still display crisp text.
]
] The material, only as thick as three human hairs,
] displays black text on a whitish-gray background with a
] resolution similar to that of a typical laptop computer
] screen.
]
] The screen is so flexible it can be rolled into a
] cylinder about a half-inch wide without losing its image
] quality.
]
] Although it's not quite the dream of single-sheet,
] electronic newspapers or books that can display hundreds
] of pages of text, its creators said it's the first
] flexible computer screen of its kind.

Cool! Where do I get one?

Laughing Boy

Paper-thin screen created

] KARACHI, Pakistan -- A laptop computer used by al-Qaeda
] operational planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has yielded a
] list of at least half a dozen hiding places along the
] Pakistan-Afghan border used by Osama bin Laden and
] his supporters, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence
] officials said Wednesday.
. . .
] Much of the information on Mohammed's laptop computer
] was protected by an encryption code that CIA analysts
] cracked easily, U.S. intelligence officials said.
]
] The analysts said the code was surprisingly simple.

Arabic ROT-13, perhaps? ;)

Seized laptop lists al-Qaeda hideouts

Even though price of laptop came down to earth these days, there are time when you might find laptop renting being a better choice than buying

The Advantages of Laptop Renting

Customs and Border Patrol at the Department of Homeland Security was just given the green light to search and seize laptops at the border, without probable cause, by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. They can deny entry to anyone who refuses to give up their laptops and password. This is an affront to our progressive values of privacy and protection from unwarranted search and seizure.

This is the CAP Action Campaign I mentioned during my talk at the Last HOPE. You can use this form to request that Customs perform a privacy impact assessment on the practice.

I Am Progress - Hands Off My Laptop

Peter Swire testifies to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on why laptop searches of Americans returning from overseas is a violation of privacy.

Peter is a co-worker of mine. Click through to read his testimony.

No, You Can't Search My Laptop

Welp, I've done a LOT of research on this. Stripping the hook out of LSASS really does the trick more than anything, but I have updated my Vundo fix page as well. Only thing about your last reply on this is that Safe Mode does not work. The file is still considered a "Windows Safe File" and will still get used by LSASS even in safe mode. BleepingComputer's fix is not necessarily the right way to go. I have used the most recent version of their fix and this trojan still laid dormant. This prompted me to write my Vundo fix page because Bleeping's wasn't working for me and plus I really wanted to find out how this ticked.

but anyways, Wendy's laptop got hit with it a few days ago and the only caveat, which I have hence updated my page with, is that you MUST boot to a BartPE or ERD Commander (Ultimate Boot Disc) to delete the .DLL or .EXE and then in notepad, create the same filename as a text file and then make them Read Only. Also, it borked with her startup items like loading "googletalk .exe" (notice the space before the .exe) so I had to recreate a new account and copy her stuff over. Best fix i've seen for Vundo yet. Do me a favor and on the computer you fixed, check that Lsa reg entry and see if anything is there.

That was one of the problems I had with Bleeping's fix was that the damn thing laid dormant and you'd think you got rid of it only to find out later you were wrong. (happened to me a few times)

There was actually several ways Vundo gets on your computer. Java and Quicktime. Firefox does use the same java as IE and by default will allow Vundo to get in. Check to make sure Java is updated to Update 3. That will fix it.

Crap Cleaner is an Excellent tool for removing registry entries that are invalid or non-existant. Perhaps you should read my fix on Vundo a little better as I think you just skimmed through it.. :) Crap Cleaner does not get rid of viruses nor did I claim it to. Crap Cleaner is an excellent tool and should be on everyone's Windows PC, next to the Anti Virus of their choosing.

Bear in mind that the only thing that Wendy does on her laptop is check email, Craigslist and MySpace. Nothing else and it was a fresh reload of the OS as well. I checked her Java version before cleanup and it was Java build 1.6.0_02.

Here are some links in reference:

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

As much as I want to blame Microsoft for this, it's not an IE Exploit that Vundo gets in. Not a Firefox exploit as well. Simply it's either Java or Quicktime that hasn't been updated. Very simple really.. :)

Also, about the RegEdit denied workaround... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

RE: Vundo/VirtuMonde removal tool