Re: Terminal room at IETF74

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.

Regards,
Elwyn Davies
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