From: Mark Hahn <mhahn@tcbtech.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 08:03:31 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Stego-empty hard drives... (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <199809220116.UAA20070@einstein.ssz.com>
Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980922085457.0096f7a0@mail.aosi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 11:37 PM 9/21/98 -0400, Lazlo Toth wrote:
>>> When you're taking your laptop through customs, you do
>>> nothing while the machine boots up, the doctored BIOS does its thing,
>>> and everybody's happy.  When you want to get at the stuff on the rest of
>>> the HD, you reboot and type in your passphrase.

As I recall, this thread is about customs officials booting your laptop
from *their* floppy and scanning your hard drive.  I suggest two
practical solutions to avoid this incursion:

1) Leave the floppy drive at home ;-) Many PCs have swapable floppy/
CD-ROM bays. I've learned to live without my floppy (others may not have
that option.)

2) If you can't leave your floppy at home, carry your sensitive data on 
a PCMCIA Type-II Hard Drive. Kingston sells one sporting 500MB 
of capacity. Pop it out and put it as far away from the laptop as you
can. Inside your other luggage somewhere.

-MpH
--------
Mark P. Hahn                    Work: 212-278-5861
mhahn@tcbtech.com               Home: 609-275-1834
TCB Technologies, Inc (mhahn@tcbtech.com)

Consultant to:
The SoGen Funds	1221 Avenue of the Americas, NY NY