Re: Terminal room at IETF74

[Scott Kitterman <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:41:21 +0000 Elwyn Davies <[e-mail]> 
wrote:
>Dean Willis wrote:
>>
>> On Mar 2, 2009, at 12:51 PM, Samuel Weiler wrote:
>>
>>> Also consider used laptops: I just picked up a used Dell Latitude for 
>>> about the same price as a netbook (and half the price of IETF 
>>> registration), and I'm delighted.
>>
>> Given that sometimes the border goons use some aggressive data 
>> recovery approaches, used laptops are somewhat interesting. Are you 
>> SURE that some erased sector doesn't contain a vestigial image of 
>> something embarassing? If it does, can you prove it wasn't you that 
>> left it there?
>>
>> Note that some of the "secure" facilities I've worked in dispose of 
>> used drives by software erasing, beating them with a sledgehammer, 
>> degaussing, baking in a ceramics kiln,  degaussing again, and then 
>> beating with a sledgehammer again. Worried about what might be 
>> recoverable from those drives?
>I suspect (but cannot be certain) that solid state disks are probably a 
>better bet if you want to erase your drive just with software.  I like 
>my Eee PC 1000 with 40G of SSD.  Light and quiet.
>
>For most people, I believe the risk of having your laptop snatched and 
>aggressively interrogated is not significantly different from what it 
>has been for a while.  Although the border goons don't have to give you 
>a reason they do have limited resources and unless they have reason to 
>suspect that they might get a positive result from spending large 
>amounts of time dismantling your drive they are unlikely to hit on you 
>at random, always provided you don't irritate them unnecessarily at the 
>time.  OTOH if your employer or your good self  has already come to the 
>notice of some US law enforcement entity already, then the chances of 
>having your laptop snatched may go up close to a certainty, which I 
>suspect is why Chris Dearlove has this problem.  For the rest of us, it 
>remains a small risk along with the possibility of being mis-identified 
>or triggering some stupid profiling filter.  A general level of paranoia 
>is probably justified, but I shan't be going over the top .  Famous last 
>words?  Of course,  Your (personal) MMV.

Based on the address used in the message that kicked off this thread, the 
individual that started this thread works for a company that has a 
significantly greater reason for concern than an average traveller.

Scott K