WiFi broadband access security?

[WasserLand]

Michael, Chris, and Paul, Wow! You guys are really putting the wind up me.

Firstly, let me thank you for the input. I must say that much of it is 
beyond me.

I bought the laptop specifically to take with me to the US. Not on 
business but to visit my daughter in NY and a friend in Canada. A jaunt 
to Vegas and drive to Grand Canyon. Then onto San Diego and back to LA 
for my long trip home. (Jealous?!)

I figured that the many, many hours of flying and sitting around 
airports could be utilised to tidy my data. It's all very innocuous. My 
music library, photo albums, my email would be most boring for the 
customs people.

More seriously though, I might want to check accounts, make bookings, 
access bank accounts. That's what I am worried about. Sitting there at a 
hot spot doing some such would make me vulnerable without the right 
security. I plan to buy a few things with the wonderful Aussie $ - why not?

David W


On 25/04/11 21:18, Michael Chesterton wrote:
> On Mon, 2011-04-25 at 20:53 +1000, Paul Gear wrote:
>> On 24/04/11 22:02, Chris Robinson wrote:
>>> ...
>>> I have just ordered Kogan's Agora 12" laptop preloaded as it will be
>>> with 11.04.  It will be going on holiday with me to USA in August.
>>>
>> If you don't want the US TSA getting their grubby mitts on your
>> laptop, you will need to have it encrypted and powered off when you go
>> through their facilities.
>>
>> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/laptop_security.html
>> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/03/tsas_ideal_lapt.html
>> http://www.schneier.com/essay-217.html
>>
>> Disclaimer: i have no idea whether this makes it more likely for you
>> to get refused entry to the country.  Personally, i wouldn't take a
>> laptop with data i care about to another country without considerable
>> investigation into my rights and responsibilities in taking the laptop
>> through customs.  I would save myself the effort and just buy a small,
>> cheap laptop explicitly for the purpose.  Or more likely, buy one when
>> i get there, because it's cheaper.
> They might ask for a password, so, create an account called your first
> name, and just log in and add a few icons, make some browsing history,
> etc, make it looked used, and set it to auto login to that account on
> boot. Then create your real account, encrypted. When you want to use it,
> let it boot up, auto login, then manually switch accounts. When you are
> finished logout, maybe shutdown. I have no idea if this will fool them,
> but there is another reason to do this below.
>
> While you're at it, put theft tracking software in the auto login
> account so if someone steals it, you can at least mess with their minds
> via remote control. Assuming they boot it and use the auto login
> account.
>
>
>
>
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