Profiling/personal computer security at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv I just had a rather unholy experience in Israel. Maybe someone with expertise can email me a few suggestions with regards to securing a PC at start up. On Nov. 2nd I arrived three hours early to Ben Gurion Airport for my flight to Bangkok(via Amman, Jordan). While standing in line before the check-in counters I listened to Shin Bet representatives interrogating passengers. When my turn came the friendly skies turned dark. Apparently my responses to the standardized questions became an unwelcome indictment. I believe a few things contributed to my being selected: 1) jobless but carrying a generous roll of C notes and a stack of trav. checks 2) purchased a one-way the day before from an Arab travel agent(with credit card, not cash) 3) declined an Israeli stamp in my passport(*red flag*) 4) numerous stamps from Arab countries; travelled overland from Sinai 5) I rented a car from an Arab agency located in East Jerusalem These characteristics qualified me for a trip to the back room where they opened my bag and discovered a computer. "Why didn't you tell me you had a computer?" the Shin Bet trainee demanded in a somewhat agitated tone. "Because you didn't ask", I replied. A few moments later someone emerged from yet another back room and asked me something stupid about the computer's battery. I removed the battery as requested. He then asked to see the computer ostensibly to send it through a machine to determine if it was actually a well-disguised bomb. That was his pretense as the computer disappeared for more than 45 minutes. About 5 minutes after he left with the computer someone else walked into the room and gave me the floppy that I always leave in that drive. I assume that this means that they began working on the machine as soon as they left the room with it. Later someone else from another building came to look at the computer so I guess this means that they have a few guys who swing between the four departure terminals checking on progress or doing whatever. When the guy returned my computer there was a half inch crack on the side of my Toshiba that hadn't been there when he left with it. Perhaps they took a hammer and chisel to my hardware. I started it up and found that the Windows 95 password was compromised(no flames, please). I know that you can by-pass the Win95 password by going to the DOS mode, then tweaking something. However, I don't think that was done as the network configuration was altered and some sort of recent Win95 utility was installed( and it wasn't mine). I say recent because I have a newer version Win95 on my desktop so the slight differences are easily apparent to me. The shut down option has a different("shut down and allow user to log on") something or other than was there before. Now the password feature is fucked and the battery management feature isn't working either. I have PGP5.0 installed and a few other easy-to-use crypto and stego programs but nothing was said about those. I have three documents encrypted with PGP but I seriously doubt that they were found. They opened four documents in WordPerfect but nothing in those documents is in the least bit interesting. They easily could have copied the entire C drive and given the machine back to me. Or they could snatch an identity or two and use them for their own corrupt pursuits. What can I do to make the computer fucking impenetrable at start up? --- to the point that they have to ask me for the password or nothing moves. The whole episode was unfucking believable and that wasn't all. I had a $50 bill stashed in a small space in my backpack. While in the terminal waiting to board I discovered it missing. One of the urchins who was protecting the Jewish state from terrorism burned me. The adapter for my Canon printer is missing as well. In short, the Israelis are unscrupulous bastards who deserve a suitcase nuke. I am convinced of this after having visited the tragedy known as the Occupied Territories--- but that is another matter. I wrote down most of the questions used for their profiling scheme. If anyone is interested I will send them if requested. If anyone is interested in creating a page dedicated to these profiling schemes(American, Israeli, anyone) I would be happy to contribute. send security suggestions to: hico@hotmail.com