Photos and laptop crypto

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rMslade () shaw ca>]

The lead article/editorial in Bruce Schneier's latest CryptoGram 
(http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram.html) points out the foolishness in warning 
people to beware of terrorists taking pictures.  Millions of people take billions of 
pictures every year for legitimate or innocent reasons, and the major terrorist 
attacks have not involved terrorists walking around taking photographs of the 
targets.  It doesn't make sense to try and protect yourself by raising an alarm 
about an activity that is probably (*extremely* probably) not a threat.

Rather ironically, the second piece talks about the fact that your laptop may be 
searched when you fly to another country, and the advisability of laptop 
encryption.  Leaving aside privacy and legality concerns, Schneier is for 
encryption.

Now, I don't fly as much as some, but more than many.  Since I'm a security 
researcher, I've got all kinds of materials on my laptop that would probably raise 
all kinds of flags.  I've got files with "virus," "malware," "botnet," and all kinds of 
other scary terms in the filenames.  (I've got a rather extensive virus zoo in one 
directory.)  Nobody at immigration has ever turned a hair at these filenames, since 
nobody at immigration has ever asked to look at my laptop.  (Even the security 
screeners don't ask me to turn it on as much as they used to, although they do 
swab it more.)

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't encrypt materials on their laptops: it's 
probably a good idea for all kinds of reasons.  However, unless I'm very fortunate 
in my travels (and, from my perspective, I tend to have a lot more than my fair 
share of travel horror stories), the risk of having immigration scan your laptop is 
not one of them.

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
       When you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm
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