Is This the New Normal – EU Issues Burners to Staffers Going to the U.S.?

The EU has confirmed that it issues burner phones to top officials travelling to the United States but says it wasn’t caused by the new regime.

It follows the Financial Times reporting of increased risk of surveillance when travelling to the US amid reports of US treatment of individuals transiting its borders.

Customs’ opinion is that they do not need either a warrant or reasonable cause to search any electronic devices you carry with you as you enter or exit the US and can ask you to unlock them if they are locked.

For US citizens they can’t deny you entry if you refuse, but they can seize any devices they want and send them off to be cracked. If you do unlock your device they may take it away. Whether they load malware on it when it is out of your presence is unknown. For non-US citizens, refusal may be justification to deny entry.

That puts the US on the same level of concern for privacy and snooping as say, China.

For example, European Commission staff will be visiting the United States for meetings related to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. We don’t have a clear answer as to whether they will be issued burners for this trip.

Politics being what it is, the EC is denying that they told staff to use burners when visiting the US, but they said that country specific travelling recommendation factsheets for officials, which are confidential, were “recently updated”. When specifically pressed on whether they issued burner phones, they said that we occasionally give burner equipment to staff. You connect the dots.

While this report discussed what other countries are doing, it should be top of mind for you as well. If you have employees who travel globally, you should review what you allow them to take with them. As I have reported before, many so-called friendly countries (Israel, France, Germany and others) are well known to hack into business traveler’s devices, both for espionage purposes and to steal secret information to give to competitors in their country.

Some large companies have given all of their international travelers burners for years. When they return they must give back the burner devices, which are then wiped. That, of course, won’t remove root kits, but it will remove most other malware.

If you need help with this, please contact us. Credit: The Record and The Register

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