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Travelling With Laptops/PGP
Problem:
I will be spending a couple of months chilling out in Barcelona, Spain.
I will have a local Internet account/dial-up in that city, and will use
it to telnet into my various US-based accounts. This is how I plan to
keep in touch with various people while I am gone.
Questions:
1 - Is the importation of two laptops and it's various peripheral devices
by a US citizen into Spain going to be a problem? I know it is in some
European countries.
2 - Will having PGP 2.6.2, with 2048-bit keys, or any key length for this
matter, installed on these two machines, cause a problem?
3 - What about having SSH and ESM installed on the laptops? Will this set
off red flags as well?
Now, I see a work around if this is a problem, but would like advice on
this also:
If I generate a temporary PGP key, and distribute it prior to my departure,
and then store it on the US-based server (not a good idea, but it is a
temporary key, and if it is not a problem in Spain, SSH and ESM would be in
use) then bouncing out of Spain via telnet into US-based computers to
process encryption/decryption, key management, etc, any encryption would
never actually take place on servers outside of the US.
Would this be a viable workaround? Or should I just say fuck it, and just
disavow myself of any reason/need for PGP for the duration of my stay? If
this is gonna be a problem, I'll just forego anything requiring
encryption while I am in Spain.
I have no interest in smuggling crypto in, or defying international law
just to use PGP for personal use. If it's not allowed, I simply won't use
it. But, I MUST be able to bring my laptops into the country. That HAS to
happen.
My Research: I tried to find these answers myself via conventioanl
methods, and either there was no information available, or the embassy
people I spoke to weren't sure. (Go figure!) So now I ask for your
opinions.
se7en