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International Business and Laptop Security

Friday, October 17, 2008 2:50:36 AM UTC
by Jason Pieters
    On more then one occasion individuals entering the United States have been stopped and the content of their laptops or other electronic devices has been inspected.  Not only inspected but on multiple occasions had their laptops confiscated.  Their files, email, and pictures searched for any contraband.  While this may shock some or enrage your sense of civil liberties the courts have upheld these searches in the name of securing our borders.  While I do have strong feelings about this I took my thoughts past my opinions and thought about my travels for work.

What is the impact going to be later this year when I travel outside our borders?  Will my laptop be confiscated?  Will I be forced to give the government my passwords and encryption pass-phrases?  Are they going to throw me in jail if I insist on being present when they examine my laptop?  What safeguards are they using to ensure that the information contained on my laptop are secure?

    I examined the current laws and was shocked to find out that not only are these searches perfectly legal but Congress and the courts support them.  I was able to find out that a bill was recently introduced in the House of Representatives that is supposed to protect citizens against unreasonable electronics searches at the borders (Border Security Search Accountability Act of 2008).  This bill itself has not been signed into law yet but it does not protect individuals or companies from having their confidential files examined.

    The bill does not require the Department of Homeland Security to store your information securely.  It does call for later assessments of these searches by other bodies of Homeland Security.  The information does require that a company or individual be notified if their information is copied, shared, or entered into a database.  The individual will also get a receipt for their laptop or electronic device.

    As a law-abiding citizen this is an inconvenience.  As a corporation this is yet another vector for data loss.  This is one form of data loss that can’t be taken care of by simply implementing full disk encryption (the bill stipulates the information will be decrypted).  So what do we do for our employees that are traveling abroad?

    
The safest way for a corporation to deal with a laptop being confiscated at the border is to be prepared.  Be aware that your employees could have their laptop confiscated. Understand what exposure you could face if the laptop was lost while in the governments control (malicious or accidental). 
The best way to prepare is to:

1.    Define policies that prohibit the storage of sensitive information on employee laptops.  The utilization of secure network shares and remote access technologies is more than enough to protect information while providing remote workers access.

2.    Identify procedures for identifying sensitive information on employee’s laptops.  This can be done via tools like Symantec’s Vontu or through scripted regular expression searches. The last way is manual inspection of laptops prior to an employee going on a trip abroad.

3.    Educate employees that if their laptop is confiscated that they report it immediately so that any remote access or privileges that user may have can be revoked.

4.    Insure that the employee gets some written form or receipt for the property so that your corporate legal department can retrieve your property.

    Once a laptop is returned it must be inspected manually for sensitive information and documents.  One of the disturbing ideas found within the documentation is that the information may be stored or shared.  Identifying what may have been copied or shared is vital to protecting your company.


Click here for more information on the Border Security Search Accountability Act of 2008





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