Security precautions to consider while traveling through airports

There has never been a better time to shore up your digital and cybersecurity posture ahead of traveling, especially as airport security and border checks have been in the news.

Here in the United States, the Trump administration has deployed ICE federal immigration enforcement agents to several airports in major American cities under the guise of easing security lines, amid an ongoing partial government shutdown that left thousands of federal workers with the TSA, which screen passengers at U.S. airports, without pay.

Marisa Kabas with The Handbasket reports, citing her sources, that ICE are mostly just standing around in airports and doing nothing, but describes how passengers, including U.S. citizens, fear and dread being confronted by ICE agents. Just a day earlier, ICE agents snatched a mother and her daughter after they had passed through airport security and were about to board a flight. TSA agents had tipped off ICE that their names were on a passenger list for a domestic flight, and were deported to Guatemala soon after.

As you go through U.S. airport security before your flight, note that TSA officers cannot examine your devices or look at your data. But government authorities have broad powers to demand access to your devices and search your private data when you cross a border of a country that you have just arrived in, including in the U.S., where border searches of people's devices are on the rise.

It's good to know your rights and exercise caution as you travel, and take advantage of device encryption and security protections to defend unwanted access to your information as you travel domestically through the United States, or as you cross international borders.

Here are some security resources to consider from the people who know this space best. The following links contain much more information and guidance that can help you travel safely and with your digital data untouched.

More of the goods after this brief interlude...

Before you fly

Keep a paper copy of your travel documents, such as your passport and boarding passes. This allows you to go through airport security, gate scans, and any immigration checks without having to reach for your phone. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a digital security checklist that can help to ensure that journalists are as prepared for travel as possible, though this guide is actually good for everyone. The EFF also explains what happens if you ever get called into secondary screenings.

If you encounter ICE at a U.S. airport, you should know your rights, even if you are a U.S. citizen. The ACLU and the Immigrant Defense Project have helpful explainers walking you through what you need to know across a variety of situations. USA Today also has a good article on the rights that U.S. citizens and non-citizens have at U.S. airports, including when faced with ICE agents.

U.S. airports increasingly use facial recognition at airline gates just before you board a flight. You can opt-out of face scans if you are a U.S. citizen (or a permanent resident). Airports are meant to have clear and obvious signage to show that biometric collection is taking place and that you can opt-out, but often don't. Simply tell an airline agent that you want to opt-out of biometrics, and they will manually check your passport and boarding pass instead.

At the border

Wired ($) has an excellent article explaining the risks that travelers face at the U.S. border and how to enter the country with your privacy intact. In the event that you're subject to a device search at the border, taking basic but important security measures can ensure you are best protected. This includes keeping your devices up-to-date, which helps prevent police phone unlocking devices from exploiting flaws in your phone's software to get access to your data. It's also important to have an emergency contact plan in the event that you are detained or cut off from your devices.

Note that some countries, like Hong Kong, the United States, and the United Kingdom can demand access to your phone, and you can face criminal charges if you refuse. Some countries, like the U.S., can't refuse you entry if you're a U.S. citizen, but they can take your device, make a copy of your encrypted data, and try to access it at a later time.

And, The New York Times ($) explains what happens during these border device searches, but note that non-citizens are not really afforded many rights or recourse for declining. This article also provides additional security advice, such as setting a stronger passcode to make it more difficult for border agents to guess and access your data, or switching off your phone altogether, which I have previously explained for subscribers why this puts your phone in a more secure state.

A more extreme approach is to back up a full encrypted snapshot of your device, upload a copy to an encrypted cloud storage server that only you hold the keys to, wipe your phone, then redownload and restore the backup copy once you clear the border.

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