Digital security for high-risk travel — border device searches, clean devices, hotel networks, and what to prepare before you land.
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was arrested in Kuwait for reposting CNN footage of a US fighter jet crash. The law used to charge him was enacted twelve days after his arrest.
At a US port of entry, a border agent can search the entire contents of your laptop, phone, and any other device with no warrant, no probable cause,.
If your phone is gone and you cannot remotely wipe it before someone with real resources accesses it, assume everything on it is compromised.
End-to-end encrypted by default for all messages and calls.
Assess the specific threat profile of your destination.
In the United States, border agents can search electronic devices without a warrant, without probable cause, and without any articulable suspicion for both citizens and non-citizens at ports of entry.