Dept. of Homeland Security, Customs & Border Patrol, & Your Electronics

For what it is worth, this is my opinion of the CPB/DHS & electronics conundrum, along with some (hopefully) good ideas to be implemented: 

For several months now I have been reading about the crisis of international travel and re-entry into the good ole’ US of A with electronics in hand.  I have several clients who regularly travel internationally.  As their travel consultant I try to read up on, be informed and forewarn them of issues and events.  One of the most worrisome is that of having your computer, ipod, cell-phone, camera, blackberry or any other electronic method of carrying data being perused, rifled and even confiscated - sometimes to never be seen again.  Recently there was a an article that I “dugg” earlier this weekend and posted yesterday about this issue and some very good advice offered.  If you consider yourself a “regular” person, with no particular interests that could be thought of as deviant or political or any other classification that DHS &CPB would consider interesting, you probably think it will never happen to you; that it happens to people who “deserve” to be scrutinized; and/or people who may be ethnically, politically or religiously different than you are.  What this and other articles I have read emphasizes is that this is actually “non-discrimatory”.  It can happen to anyone who travels internationally, re-enters their home country, and is carrying a piece of electronics with them.  

So I offer this opinion and information as a means of helping our country remain safe from terrorism while protecting travelers from distress, loss of personal or privileged information and to protect against potential opportunity for identity theft, and/or, at the least, loss of valuable property.  Yes, sometimes they take a computer or other electronics.  You never get to see it again and have no financial remuneration for it.  You may also have lost the only copy of everything you have on that device.

#1:  Before you travel, back up everything on your device. Depending on the size of your memory device, you may need to purchase a portable hard drive and back up, back up, back up.  What the heck, you should be doing that anyway in case your device dies an unexpected death.  You would not want to lose that novel you have been working on for the past 10years, now would you?  Or last year’s tax return you did not print a copy of for your files?

#2:  You travel a lot and you travel internationally occasionally.  You might want to think about getting some online storage space for your truly valuable, potentially confidential, potentially damaging information.  It may seem scary to put it on a server, no matter how secure the owner says it is, and to access it through a secure connection over the internet.  But that is not as scary as having unscrupulous people rifling through the information or having it become public without your permission.

#3:  Do not carry any electronics with you and become a person who uses some of the oldest tools around - a pencil and paper. 

Mostly, just think about what personal (and otherwise) information is contained on the electronic devices you carry on your person.  Use discretion, no matter where you travel:  on the streets of your hometown, across our nation, or around the world.