[mingus88]

You should always bring a burner device when traveling to a foreign country, US or otherwise

The border patrol can effectively do anything they want, for any reason. If they ask you to unlock your devices, do it. Let them take it away to be imaged. There will be nothing of value on a burner device.

1password has a travel mode which will remove vaults from your devices. Take this one step further and remove everything unnecessary for travel from your devices

[tim333]

I've travelled to 50+ countries and never considered bringing a burner device. This recent US thing of of checking your devices or social media posts and turning back people with wrongthink is kind of novel.

[mingus88]

I worked for a government contractor and this was common guidance over a decade ago if you are in any sensitive role

It is not hard to imagine a scenario where a foreign government might surreptitiously plant a rootkit on a lowly IT workers device as they transit customs, as a means to pivot for corporate or other espionage

It is much more common to phish the administrative staff for a firm to get network access but you would have to be a fool to ignore the vector of customs simply using direct physical access for a much more effective hack

[mingus88]

Was Israel ever on your list of 50+ countries?

I just realized that the most restrictive border I ever crossed was a trip to Tel Aviv and it was well known even back then that they would inspect everything about you before you even landed