The last time I traveled internationally, the most complicated hardware I had with me was a Casio watch.

I'm taking a trip and will have my laptop and cellphone.  The laptop currently has a dual-install of Win8.1 and Ubuntu 14.4 LTS on it. The cellphone is Android 5.x.


I dislike on principle the idea of any government agent snooping in my business without probable cause and a warrant. (Arguments regarding internet connected computers, NSA, etc. can be left to another thread.) What is the best way to ensure my data is safe?


My laptop is due for a speedy SSD anyway, so I was thinking to install a fresh SSD and a fresh Ubuntu install, with the drive fully encrypted. I would transfer any data I need back and forth to work via SSH when I am on the road.


My cellphone, that's a different story.  They're kind of a lifeline these days, and I don't want to wipe all of my data. It's currently not completely encrypted, and I've hesitated to do so because my understanding is that you then can't set it to use the dot-swipe login, which is my preferred everyday method of getting in.


Are there better options to travelling securely with minimal snooping?

#1 -- encryption will not protect you.  If they want to look at your computer, they will simply tell you to unlock the encryption, and if you refuse they'll take your laptop and deny you entry.

#2 -- I've traveled all over the world and never been asked to open my laptop or any other device I carry.

Depending on how much data you have, I'd say leave it in the US and connect to it from overseas.

Depending on WHERE you are going, that might work or not.


There are ways to make hidden encrypted partitions on a hard drive that are nigh undetectable. Put a Truecrypt mobile install file somewhere you can access it online (email attachment perhaps) and run it if you need to.


Just boot into your windows install and let them poke around, unless you are some super high up techno business traveller they probably won't give a shit what you have.

Plus, depending on where you're traveling, you don't have to worry about them cracking the encryption they'll just beat you with a wrench until you decrypt it for them.

Or beat you with a wrench for making them go through the trouble.

Do you even VMWare, Bro?

it's like meta-beating. Being beat because they have to beat you.

burner phone and laptop.  Leave your data here in the US and VPN back in from wherever.

Ask your Cartel buddies....




































































 

 
This.


 

Except that if you believe you are going to be targeted for some reason (academic or commercial espionage - like carrying around the unpublished journal article on how you achieved cold fusion that the Red Chinese will try and hijack...), then you might consider a simple new phone (a burner, if you will - one Josh would call a toy) and a basic laptop with your data encrypted on a flash drive that you keister (okay, that part was a joke).


If you are a target of hostile intelligence services, angry academicians that want to beat you to a Nobel, or evil business competitors, they will probably compromise your data at home.


Border guards in the EU?  Not so much unless they think you are a smuggler or something.  Once you enter the EU (get off the plane in Munich or Rome or London or whatever), you aren't going to see another border guard until you leave (Schengen and all that).

If you're going to ssh anyways why not take a sterile computer? Our lab forces us to do that for foreign travel. I have been asked to open my laptop while entering/exiting a country (just yesterday in fact). But I didn't have to sign in to it or anything. For your phone, put the longest password you're allowed. Won't stop everything but if it's anything like the iPhone it will already be encrypted.