Comments on: Traveling Tech? http://secureyourselfonline.com/traveling-tech News and Tips on securing your network, website, and blog Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:21:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Ari Takanen http://secureyourselfonline.com/traveling-tech#comment-41 Ari Takanen Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:29:16 +0000 http://secureyourselfonline.com/?p=47#comment-41 I have traveled to USA approx twice a month for the past five or so years, and almost always worn the Codenomicon "Go Hack Yourself" T-shirt. I have long hair, casual clothes, and come from a country that some think is in the Eastern Europe (it is not). I often carry two or three laptops with me, accompanied with a handful of other weird gadgets. I often tell them I am attending an infosec conference, or that I am speaking at one. Some Customs people have joked about, or maybe laughed a bit at the T-shirt. Sometimes they know enough of computer security that they have asked a bit what we do, but that is all. I have never been stopped, searched or questioned. My laptops have never been even looked at. I would be fine with it if they asked me to show the contents of my computers. But they haven't. Maybe they all know that we are the good guys? Or maybe all this is just based on some urban legend where some unlucky guy who really was randomly picked and just happened to wear a hacker shirt, or more probably who really did have a bad track record (or suspicious past-time leisures) which definitely would trigger a search. They probably do know if you have committed blackhat acts in the past, even if you were not arrested. Laptops today can contain a lot of illegal stuff, including export controlled software, pirated software and media, illegally acquired data, and much much more that should be caught at border control. I have traveled to USA approx twice a month for the past five or so years, and almost always worn the Codenomicon “Go Hack Yourself” T-shirt. I have long hair, casual clothes, and come from a country that some think is in the Eastern Europe (it is not). I often carry two or three laptops with me, accompanied with a handful of other weird gadgets. I often tell them I am attending an infosec conference, or that I am speaking at one.

Some Customs people have joked about, or maybe laughed a bit at the T-shirt. Sometimes they know enough of computer security that they have asked a bit what we do, but that is all. I have never been stopped, searched or questioned. My laptops have never been even looked at. I would be fine with it if they asked me to show the contents of my computers. But they haven’t.

Maybe they all know that we are the good guys? Or maybe all this is just based on some urban legend where some unlucky guy who really was randomly picked and just happened to wear a hacker shirt, or more probably who really did have a bad track record (or suspicious past-time leisures) which definitely would trigger a search. They probably do know if you have committed blackhat acts in the past, even if you were not arrested.

Laptops today can contain a lot of illegal stuff, including export controlled software, pirated software and media, illegally acquired data, and much much more that should be caught at border control.

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