I’ve thing to consider is not doing us trips anymore.
It’s interesting. As “regular” people, years ago, we already had this mindset of only having disposable electronics to visit the US, and the situation wasn’t as dire as today. I wonder how much of this is actual news.
They weren’t already? The US spies on its allies. And those allies spy on the US. That anyone would only be figuring this out now is kinda sad. Any foreign travel (for whatever definition of “foreign” applies to you), should be made with the assumption that someone will be attacking your electronic devices. If you don’t need all of your personal/work data on the device you have with you, don’t keep it there. If you do need some of that data, have a way to get it over the internet, preferably using a VPN but at least using encryption. For the extra paranoid, you’ll need a way to verify the OS, applications and certificates of the device accessing the data. And that still leaves hardware based attacks as a risk.
The US spies on its allies
Every country (with the capability) is spying on every other country at this point
With 14-eyes the EU sends their spying of its citizens directly to the US.
Two wrongs make a right. That’s how the saying goes, right?
If the speed limit is 55, but at the moment there’s lots of traffic going about 80, it is legitimately more dangerous to stay under 55. To be clear, the law is unambiguously here, it’s black and white. So ultimately it’s your choice. You have to decide at what point is safety a higher concern than legality?
I would say… at some point.
Right! Right? Right.
There are two ways to really interpret that:
- What was previously at the discretion of different orgs (with a strong suggestion to use burners) is now official policy.
- This now applies to personal devices
I used to do some work for the US government and even going to the frigging UK we would always have a “private meeting to go over logistics” a week or two before going over where we would be told that we need to request and use a burner phone and laptop. Never in writing because the UK was our closest ally but anyone who tried to bring their “real” work devices would rapidly be told that something went wrong with their paperwork and they can’t go on that trip anymore.
That’s an easy way to avoid going on trips then.
I don’t know who you are but most people’s threat model doesn’t need to include a foreign government spy agency physically attacking their phones. That assumption itself is insanely paranoid.
Edit: Hello?? It feels weird to ask this are yall high profile government workers or else what makes you think foreign governements will be so interested in what you have in your phone?
what makes you think foreign governements will be so interested in what you have in your phone
This is a question no one should answer in a public forum
Fair, then let me make my point clear: most people don’t have any reason to think they’re in any more danger of getting hacked abroad than at home. And I strongly dislike how blatantly paranoid comments like the above one get so many upvotes on lemmy. This is the geek’s version of doomsday prepping
Sorry, I wish this was the case but it’s not. People entering the US have been getting their phones snatched by border guards who are under a ton of pressure to detain as many people as possible. Nobody should have sensitive information on electronic devices when they’re passing through the border and if they need access to that information they should download it securely and understand that their device could still be physically compromised by someone.
The fact that that made the news shows that that’s not a common occurance, not to mention that it was the guy’s own government who snatched his phone, not a foreign spy agency.
Trump has been attacking anyone who supports Palestine regardless of if they are crossing the border or not. People really should be cautious when travelling to countries with authoritarian governments but that’s not because they’re crossing a border or are in a foreign country, it’s the same caution that needs to be observed by anyone living in such a regime
The fact that that made the news shows that
it’s not commonly covered by the news
it was the guy’s own government who snatched his phone,
I don’t see what difference that makes
People really should be cautious when travelling to countries with authoritarian governments… it’s the same caution that needs to be observed by anyone living in such a regime
100% agreed, that article is focused on a particular place where people should exercise even more caution but people should be on guard the whole time they’re under an authoritarian 's jurisdiction
People really should be cautious when travelling to countries with authoritarian governments but that’s not because they’re crossing a border
No, borders are extra risky places where there is extra surveillance and more guards who could threaten you
People really should be cautious when travelling to countries with authoritarian governments but that’s not because they’re… in a foreign country
Totally agreed
This isn’t most people it’s EU staff
I’m not talking about oop, I’m talking about the guy I replied to who said:
Any foreign travel (for whatever definition of “foreign” applies to you), should be made with the assumption that someone will be attacking your electronic devices.
Personally I’m all for burner phones, I just wish you could get burner sims as well like the good old days.
Wait you can’t?
In the UK you can just buy a Lyca or Lebara from a shop or even dudes selling them on stands in areas where people from other countries tend to be.
AFAIK that is no longer the case, all cash-only sims require a valid ID to purchase, but now I’m curious and I have to ask a lyca dealer specifically.
Yeah I’m going to do this at weekend or if I see any on the way home tonight.
All good and well, but Israeli software used by various govts can read phones without needing for them to enter a given country, see “Pegasus” scandal in Poland from last year
Interesting approach from an institute that banned having anonymous SIM cards!
Okay, and? Most Americans use or have some form of burner when interacting with the government.
Citation needed
