Legal Research

CBA on Securing Laptops to Cross U.S. Border

By Simon Fodden

The Canadian Bar Assocation’s Practice Link has a substantial and practical article by Luigi Benetton, “How to Secure Your Laptop Before Crossing the Border.” Benetton sets out ten steps you can and should take if you’re planning to travel to the U.S. with a laptop used in your practice:

1. Be Anonymous [… which is not a sure thing, hence… ]
2. Travel with a ?Bare? Computer
3. Turn Off Your Computer, Early
4. Back Up Your Data
5. Use a Different User Account to Hold Sensitive Information
6. Partition and Encrypt Your Entire Hard Drive
7. Protect FireWire Ports
8. Store Data on Small Devices
9. Protect Phones and PDAs
10. Clean Your Laptop When Returned

My own approach would be to strip my computer bare before getting to the border and then to draw down from a secure internet connection any data I needed upon arriving at my destination. Interestingly, one of the commentators on the Benetton article asks about software that can properly clean a laptop. Simple re-formatting might not do the trick. Any suggestions?

[We’ve raised this issue a number of times on Slaw:
Crossing the Border
FMC on Border Crossing
Laptops and Cross-Border Security
Loose Laptops Cause Flops ]

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).