Ride the Lightning

BRIGHT YELLOW SUITCASE SCREAMS "SEARCH ME!"

December 24, 2008

As the holidays approach, I had a number of very serious electronic evidence postings that were possibilities. Much too serious for the season, I finally decided.

My friend Ross Kodner was kind enough to send me some light-hearted moments in IT and I found one that really resonated with me. After talking about customs agents searching laptops in some of my posts, I chuckled over a story from the 80s in which a software developer was sent abroad to do some software updating and training at his corporation's South American office. He was handed a very large, very ugly, incredibly yellow suitcase that was bound to scream "Search Me!" to a customs agent.

Inside the suitcase was a number of computer components – as the employee knew, this spelled trouble, for the country to which he was heading was very protectionist when it came to its nascent computer industry. He began to have images of foreign jail cells and rubber hoses.

Management made sure to give him a piece of paper with the name of an attorney at a London-based international law firm in case he had a problem. Comforting, huh?

Mind you, John and I have had many of our own problems with security and customs. John, in particular, is frequently carrying evidence or various devices for use in computer forensics. They always stop just short of strip searching him, but he sure gets "special" treatment. And because I'm traveling with him, I get the same treatment. Lovely, always.

But this story had a happy ending, largely demonstrating the power of good marketing. As it happens, the component pieces that the employee carried in the suitcase that he had dubbed "The Yellow Peril" bore the IBM logo. In this particular South American country (unnamed in InfoWorld's "Off the Record" blog), IBM had just concluded an extensive marketing company campaign trumpeting the virtues of its then new PC.

The customs agent did indeed open "The Yellow Peril" suitcase and initially looked confused by all the computer components encased in bubble wrap. But then she spotted the familiar IBM logo and asked "IBM Personal Computer? Yours?" When the nervous employee nodded yes, she was done. She closed the hideous suitcase and sent him on his way. Not all border stories have happy endings, especially where computers are concerned.

The moral here is if they think they know what they're looking at, they are often satisfied. Now why does that bring the word "DriveCrypt" to mind?

Happy holidays to all my readers! Ride the Lightning will return next Monday . . . .

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