Do you know what happens to your laptop when it’s examined in a foreign country?

I have been warning executives for years now that it is a simple matter for a foreign government to “examine” you laptop when you enter or leave their country when in fact they quickly imaging the drive and give your intellectual property your competition in their country.  Its quite easy to do and very few people use hard drive encryption.

But to really protect yourself, consider using a technology like TrueCrypt which has a “plausible deniability” feature allowing you to have two encrypted drive passwords.  The first is a throw away with a fully functional OS (i.e. Windows XP) but no sensitive data.  The other, of course, is your daily use computer.

Oh, and if you think is stops at your computer, just send me your iPhone or Android phone for a few hours!

Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection.

The policies encourage them to leave their standard IT equipment at home and to buy separate gear only for use in China.

via Safety first for IT executives in China – Software – Technology – News – CRN Australia.