Moxie Marlinspike Detained and Placed on US Federal Watch List
Moxie Marlinspike says that he was detained and questioned after an international flight from the Dominican Republic to New York last week and appears to be on a federal “watch list” for domestic flights too but does not know why. The security researcher is known in the security community for demonstrating Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) hijacks at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas last year that make it possible to intercept login data.
“At this point, the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) has almost destroyed my ability to run a business with international customers,” Marlinspike said. “It’s impossible to travel internationally frequently when this is going to be your experience because every time you may miss your connection because you’re detained, and you might lose your laptop.” Marlinspike also can’t trust his equipment now that it has been in the hands of the agents, because it might have keyloggers on it or be otherwise compromised, he said. He has already replaced the working cell phone he had (the other was a test device for his application development), and he said he plans to get rid of the netbook that was inspected.
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