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Travelling this summer? Leave your data at home | July 10, 2008
By Peter Wolchak
If you’re heading out on a business trip or vacation, you might want to leave your data storage devices behind, especially if you’re crossing an American border. That’s advice from the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), which is warning that U.S. agents can seize cellphones, handheld computers, smartphones, digital cameras and USB storage devices, and can legally comb through your data.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials recently won a court case which upheld their right to search electronic devices even without reasonable cause or suspicion. ACTE said this means border guards can also download your data for future examination, and is recommending companies establish policies on cross-border data. One option is to move to cloud computing, a solution in which data is actually stored on a central server and the computer simply acts as an access device, with no local data storage.
Toronto-based law firm Blaney McMurtry has taken action on this issue. The firm now mandates that employees purge laptops of all sensitive information before crossing any international borders. Without such a policy, the firm said, client data would be at risk.
If you need another reason to leave work at work as you set off, this may be it.
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If you’re heading out on a business trip or vacation, you might want to leave your data storage devices behind, especially if you’re crossing an American border. That’s advice from the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), which is warning that U.S. agents can seize cellphones, handheld computers, smartphones, digital cameras and USB storage devices, and can legally comb through your data. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials recently won a court case which upheld their right to search electronic devices even without reasonable cause or suspicion. ACTE said this means border guards can also download your data for future examination, and is recommending companies establish policies on cross-border data. One option is to move to cloud computing, a solution in which data is actually stored on a central server and the computer simply acts as an access device, with no local data storage.
Toronto-based law firm Blaney McMurtry has taken action on this issue. The firm now mandates that employees purge laptops of all sensitive information before crossing any international borders. Without such a policy, the firm said, client data would be at risk.
If you need another reason to leave work at work as you set off, this may be it.
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