They can search it. I don’t have to give them the password. Let a dim-witted customs agent try to hack my password.
Absolutely. This is so easy.
1. PGP disk encryption. Makes it hard as hell for even one of their forensic’s guys to penetrate.
2. The Cloud. Keep data on your machine to a bare minimum and access your stuff from the cloud.
3. Have more than one profile on the machine. If you are demanded to surrender your machine and have sensitive data you don’t wish them to see, log onto the dummy account that contains a booby trap. Create a script that will wipe your data, set the properties of the script to run minimized so that they don’t see it running and try to stop it. Put a shortcut in the Startup folder so it executes automatically on login and make it so the script self-destruct before terminating.
All gone!
Be sure to use a hard drive password and if you use Windows 7 also be sure to use Bitlocker with an external USB key so the computer can’t be read or copied without the USB key.