[Cryptography] detention and/or seizure if you don't give your passphrase to US CBP

[Tom Mitchell]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 6:53 AM, John Denker <jsd at av8n.com> wrote:

> Hi --
>
> US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) claims unlimited authority, not
> restricted by the Constitution, at "points of entry".  They also
> claim near-unlimited authority within a "reasonable distance" of
> any land or sea boundary of the US.  They have unilaterally decided
> that 100 miles sounds "reasonable" to them.  Two-thirds of all
> people in the US live within this 100-mile zone.
>

"Points of entry" is important.

The 100 mile zone is a matter of law it has already been applied  to pursuit
of drugs and illegal immigrants.  Roadblocks in Texas and New Mexico
commonly
stop locals to and from work. There are also cameras and other "tools" in
place that from time to time get challenged and replaced.

The Two-Thirds of citizens number looks at the thick 100 mile border but
as you note "points of entry" have been added as updates to regulations.
Points of entry include all international airports with CBC offices and
facilities.
There are lot of them... with airports I suspect more than 2/3 of the
nation's
population is subject to this set of laws.
In looking for the list it is obvious that should an aircraft (even drone)
land anyplace else
that spot could be declared a point of entry glove free zone with a phone
call.
See link to pdf below.

This implies that demand for cryptographic keys and the like is the nose
into the tent already.    These are laws... and on the surface are well
covered by "in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure ...."

But if a law that provides for "common defense" causes problems
and is in conflict with justice,  insure domestic tranquility, general
welfare it gets
interesting.

This demand seems to present a risk to users of password safes,
system keyrings, any tool that aggregates secrets for convenience.
It also presents issues for companies  when employees must
have company secrets for access and might have those secrets
mixed with personal secrets (to be expected).

Companies need to control their half of two part authentication.


https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/
20140327%20Airports%20where%20CBP%20Inspe
ction%20Services%20are%20Normally%20Available.doc.pdf

-- 
  T o m    M i t c h e l l
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