Posted on 02/22/2017 9:07:21 AM PST by bryan999
A few months ago I wrote about how you can encrypt your entire life in less than an hour. Well, all the security in the world can’t save you if someone has physical possession of your phone or laptop, and can intimidate you into giving up your password.
And a few weeks ago, that’s precisely what happened to a US citizen returning home from abroad.
On January 30th, Sidd Bikkannavar, a US-born scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory flew back to Houston, Texas from Santiago, Chile.
On his way through the airport, Customs and Border Patrol agents pulled him aside. They searched him, then detained him in a room with a bunch of other people sleeping in cots. They eventually returned and said they’d release him if he told them the password to unlock his phone.
Bikkannavar explained that the phone belonged to NASA and had sensitive information on it, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He eventually yielded and unlocked his phone. The agents left with his phone. Half an hour later, they returned, handed him his phone, and released him.
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.freecodecamp.com ...
Ooops..my bad . this happened in USA.
So I amend . . why didn’t he contact his employer’s legal counsel or his own lawyer(s)?
I bought a couple of cheap phones with a Euro Sim card for traveling to Europe, it’s real basic, just for emergencies.
From the article, “If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.” Cardinal Richelieu in 1641.
Also, Stalin’s spy chief Beria is purported to have said, “Show me the man and ill find you the crime.”
I hope you don’t have a link to FR on your phone.
I work for a very well-known high tech firm that includes security products and systems for customers including the CIA and NSA. The most they would get from my phone is a hearty laugh...
I use Vonage for my home phone service (VoIP). With that comes a free app which lets you use your cell phone as your home phone, anywhere where you have WiFi. Anywhere in the world, as long as I'm on WiFi, I can make and receive calls just as if I'm at home... it's very cool.
When I travel, I use burner credit cards that are cancelled the moment I get home, my “outdoor cat” android tablet, that has nothing of value and is never used for transactions, and cash. My cell phone stays at home.
The only thing permanent is my passport. If I could travel without that, I would.
nobody talks anymore - everyone stares at their palm
Two different school principals had a worse experience than yours. One went to Mexico for a week. The data charges were over $1K. One went to China for a week. The data charges were over $2K. In the latter case, ATT comped it on a one-time basis. If it happens to you, and it’s the first time, plead ignorance and poverty, and you might get a break. The second time, you’re on your own.
Anything with “Neither should you.” as the second part of headline is fake news.
In their country, their rules; maybe they don' need no stinkin' warrant!
Maybe I misread it- I thought the Chileans demanded his phone.
Maybe he was involved with NASA's mission under Odungheap, Muslim Brotherhood outreach.
Unmentioned in the article, but...
He may have had a security clearance at JPL and didn’t report a foreign trip correctly.
There may be more to the story and we are only getting one side, who may be a Trump hater based on immigration.
>>I hope you don’t have a link to FR on your phone.<<
Just phone calls.
How’s he going to do that without unlocking the phone? Which they can then just seize to look through.
Ask to use the phone. He doesn’t have to say anything or surrender the phone. On what grounds did they have to detain him over his phone?
And then they say no. One of the fun parts about border checks is that technically speaking they aren’t detaining you. Because they’re the gatekeepers on whether or not you’re allowed in the country they have the ability to not let you in until you meet their requirements without ever actually arresting you, and while you have the technical ability to arrange transportation out of the country that can be rather difficult when you’re in a room with no phone or computer. “We have suspicions and we’d like to see...” is a very powerful tool when placed at border checkpoints.
And if youre an American citizen? And just what are “their requirements” in this case? The passcode to your cell phone, tablet, PC?
Im sure there are quite a few lawyers who would love to have represented this guy had he refused and Customs has falsely imprisoned the guy for hours ..or days
The requirements are what they want. If they decide you’re “suspicious” they have pretty much free reign to allay their suspicions. Just look at how often customs on the Mexican border takes apart people’s cars because they’re “suspected”. None of this is really new.
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