A little unrelated, I heard that the TSA in the US is bad? e.g stealing phones, money, iPads etc. Has anyone had this happen?
Hardly. They usually seem half asleep / bored / not paying attention most the time. Besides, things like phones, laptops, and stuff like that would be pretty easy to determine who stole it.
If you had it before security, but didn't have it
after security... chance are, security took it. What gate did you enter? What time did you go through it? Must have been of these ten workers on the clock at that time in this section. I would imagine that with the level of surveillance at these areas that they're (hopefully) not stupid enough to try to steal from people.
Granted, I've been pulled aside for search only to be passed through
without search and I've also been traveling with people who brought their own food (from home) on board in rubbermaid containers, including like a quart of home made spicy sauce and TSA didn't give two shits or even care to look at it.
Also there may be a funny story about Miller and I going through US customs when flying back into the USA where I set off the alarm because I did not remove my belt or watch, and was just waived through (even though I asked if I should remove them and go back through the machine), and Miller being about 4 people in line behind me got pulled aside and all his luggage searched... haha. Took him like 40 minutes to finally come through and meet me on the America side. They wanted to question him about the cigars in his luggage (NOT carry on, the bag that was checked in when arriving at the airport) but the cigars I had in a plastic grocery bag that went through xray, after I set off the metal detector alarm..... not an issue. Didn't have to remove my belt or watch, was just told to go through. <shrugs>
Worst I've had was them tell me to finish my drink before I boarded, but generally they don't care. They're lazy and inconsistent in enforcing their ever changing rules. I think I just get lucky. I'm the guy who goes first in the new line when they split up a long line.
But back on topic, for travel security? Honestly, relatively light compared to others. I just connect to a VPN if at the airport, in a hotel or using wifi anywhere outside of my home. I don't keep anything very important or revealing on my laptop, so in the event it was stolen damage would be minimal. If confiscated, nothing of great importance on it. In regards to data, I travel light. In regards to actual luggage... I pack too much.
and no worries about hardware! Had some memory go bad on one of my shared servers a few years ago during my flight from New York to Paris and it was repaired by the folks at the datacenter before I landed!
