[Cryptography] Rubber-hose resistance?

[Nico Williams]

On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 06:31:24PM +0000, Jeremy Stanley wrote:
> Also, when crossing some borders, your devices may leave your person
> and be out of visual range for extended periods of time before you
> get them back. In such circumstances do you consider them probably
> compromised (perhaps even at the firmware or hardware level) and
> quarantine or dispose of them accordingly?

If that happens you just dispose of the devices.

A simple defense against this sort of attack is to carry just a
raspberry pi and an SD card with a minimal OS and content.  You can
always buy a new SD card, download an image, and build yourself a remote
access terminal.  It's pretty simple.  It's not likely that customs will
have a hardware attach for every SBC out there, and you can always
inspect it, as these computers are very small and their boards highly
accessible.

If you stay at a hotel then chances are you can just display onto the
room's TV with an HDMI cable.  Or you can carry a 14" portable display
-- these are widely available and cheap.

You will have to carry a keyboard and mouse, but that's a plus.  I
always do anyways for ergonomics reasons, and maybe so should you.

This approach compares well to a proper laptop if all you'll be needing
is a terminal anyways.

Nico
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