Legality of electronic search and seizure

About7Narwhal

IDK if anyone else has been following this story, but there has recently been a controversial case regarding HDD decryption and 5th amendment rights. There has also been a lot of talk about the US border and their rights to search electronic media without a warrant. I have always been curious about a particular aspect of these types of cases and I was hoping someone here might be able to answer my question.

If I were to cross the border with an encrypted laptop that belonged to my company, could I legally give authorization for the US Border patrol to search the computer? The property (both the physical device and the electronic data) do not belong to me. While I have the ability to access this data, I would not have the right to share or distribute. Just curious if anyone has a multi-national company they work for that has security provisions for such events. The only multi-national company I have worked for (as help desk) directed us to contact asset management and transfer such inquires.

Thanks!

hoktauri

I really don't know but the person doing the checking probably doesn't care. You can either decrypt it or get denied entry.

About7Narwhal

I think you will find that it doesn't quite work that way. They don't just deny you, they detain you. lol

SwitchingGears

No experience with it, but I would think if you receive an order from any LEO agency your company would expect you to comply with it. The reality is, you would not have a choice. They would seize the item and send you on your way (seize it simply due to the time it takes to forensically image and analyze a hard drive, which could take weeks to months).

In practical terms and similarly, does it matter if you're traveling in a rental car, versus a car you own?
Ownership and permission are not important to LEO. It's all about possession and "dominion", both of which are under your control. In other words, make sure any computer taken across borders is squeeky clean from any contraband, whether it be yours, or your company's.

Prisons are full of guys who tried the Austin Powers "I'm telling ya baby, that's not mine" defense, lol.

There's also the 3-4 levels of questioning before you get to the point where they are ready to seize an item.

And in case you don't want to be bothered by the whole process, you can always try these tactics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF1SLsmzdzc

DevilWAH

Its simply, they have the right to take the equipment from you. However you do not have to directly give them the access to the data (passwords and credentials to unlock it), however you would be expected to provide the owners full contact details and they may detain you until they are happy the details you give are valid.

We tell our traveling staff if there is any issues like this then they are to contact a senior named member of management who will direct them on what to do. we have lots of Intellectual Proptery on our devices so we don't want it getting out of our control.

Of course this assumes you have a decent customs process. I image if you where traveling UK to US where the relationship is decent then I would expect them to be reasonable. Traveling to North korea on the other hand you might not get a choice.

the_Grinch

Technically, leaving the country with encryption higher then a certain level (which I can't recall at the moment) is considered arms dealing. I've not seen it applied to anyone with encrypted laptops, but the option is there. Now in all the cases thus far the laptops were already logged in at the time of crossing the border. In one case, the CBPO (those are the officers who work the borders) saw the illegal pictures and proceed to arrest the person. The laptop was turned off and it wasn't known it had encryption until the forensic process began.

Now I'm not defending what they are doing because I do believe they are not within their rights without some form of evidence. But the thing to remember is at either side of the two borders we have these officers are seeing thousands a day. They lack the man power to check every laptop or electronic device that is going through. I really disliked that they choose to use the words "hunch" and "gut" to describe what the officer can do. I have friends who do the job and have received fairly extensive training on body language and things of that nature so they know what they are looking for. Things have to really not add up for them to pull you out and start looking for things.