Everyones favorite hacker of yore Kevin Mitnick has been hassled by the cops again. Kevin was held for 5 years with no charges brought against him, making him a folk hero of sorts. Once he was released he , suprise suprise, started a security firm.

Well on a recent trip back into the country from columbia he was detained. Customs snagged him after scanning his passport. They went through his luggage and found 3 laptops, 3 iPhones, and 4 nokias, all with multiple sim cards for different countries. He even had a lock picking kit, and a HID proximity card spoofer. The spoofer is a way to get into areas that have proximity based card security without having to make a new card.

They grilled him on Where he was coming from and why he had the equipment. He explained it was because of a security conference he gave while in columbia and even showed them proof in the form of an itinerary in his email and when he went to clear his personal information from the machine a automatic message they snatched it away from him thinking he was deleting evidence. Realizing he was logged in and not wanting them to have his password he quickly reached over and powered the laptop off.

To make matters worse while he was getting his baggage his phone rings and its his girlfriend saying she just got a call about a package he shipped back to the US. It had some miscellaneous souvenirs and computer equipment. They asked if they could open it since they found traces of cocaine on it. That package was torn apart, the equipment dismanteled and the hard drive destroyed as they tried to drill into it to check to see if it had cocaine in it.

Talk about a bad day. Eventually they let him go and apologized.

Now this is pretty bad. It looked none to good either, remember he was a notorious hacker with way to much gear on him. 7 phones total? That a little gluttonous. I can understand him being questioned based on what he had and his background but the simple fact is it can happen to any of us at any time when we leave or enter the country.

Our civil rights have been shredded by the state to nearly draconian proportions.

Best bet? Ship your stuff.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10054569-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5