Kevin Mitnick, the infamous hacker who basically gave script-kiddies the power to lord over dumb journalists and law enforcement folks, was detained after a trip to Bogota where he gave a talk to reporters from El Tiempo. When he landed in Atlanta, customs officials pulled him out of line and searched his bags where they found:
In his luggage, they found a MacBook Pro, a Dell XPS M1210 laptop, an Asus 900 mini-laptop, three or four hard drives, numerous USB storage devices, some Bluetooth dongles, three iPhones, and four Nokia cell phones (with different SIM cards for different countries).
They also found a lock-picking kit and an HID proximity card spoofer that can be used to snag data stored on physical access cards by swiping it in front of them. The data can then be used to enter locked doors without having to make a forged access card. Mitnick says he used the device in a demonstration about security in his speech in Bogota, but that the customs agents’ eyes lit up when they saw it, thinking it was a credit card reader.
Three laptops, lockpicking sets (actually his business cards), and data card readers. Simultaneously, in an unrelated issue, officials in Bogota were drilling through a package of electronics and hard drives he was sending back home, looking for cocaine.
This actually makes me a bit scared. Mitnick has his copy of Firefox set to clear his data when it is closed or opened, ensuring that his passwords don’t fall into the wrong hands. I’m thinking of encrypting my stuff now.