That's the response to a senator's questions about border agents pressuring Americans into providing device credentials.
The Border Patrol says it can search data stored on travelers' devices but not on the cloud.Scott Olson/Getty Images
US border patrol officers don't have the authority to examine data stored in the cloud when they search travelers' phones, the US Customs and Border Protection has acknowledged.
The agency clarified that while it can search electronic devices at the border without consent and in most cases without a warrant, it has no authority to search data in the cloud, according to a letter published Wednesday by NBC News. The clarification came in response to questions from Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, about what he called the "deeply troubling" practice of border agents pressuring Americans into providing passwords and access to their social media accounts.
"CBP's authority to conduct border searchers extends to all merchandise entering or departing the United States, including information that is physically resident on an electronic device transported by an international traveler," the agency said in the letter. "Therefore, border searches conducted by CBP do not extend to information that is located solely on remote servers."
Wyden and Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, introduced legislation in April that would require border officers to show probable cause before searching or seizing cell phones.
"Americans' constitutional rights shouldn't disappear at the border," Wyden said at the time. "By requiring a warrant to search Americans' devices and prohibiting unreasonable delay, this bill makes sure that border agents are focused on criminals and terrorists instead of wasting their time thumbing through innocent Americans' personal photos and other data."
The US Customs letter, attributed to Kevin McAleenan, the agency's acting commissioner, contends that officers may search any traveler's phone without probable cause upon entering or leaving the United States. McAleenan wrote that officers can search only for content that is saved directly to the device, such as text messages, images and contacts.
The letter neglected to respond to a request for statistics regarding how many cell phone searches are conducted at borders at the request of other government agencies, such as the FBI or the Drug Enforcement Administration
Snapchat can be an addictive app. Between the filters, stickers, and the peace of mind that any goofy pictures of videos you send through the app will disappear once viewed, it's easy to get caught up in the fun.
But if you aren't happy with the new Snap Map feature and its potential privacy implications, or if you've simply had enough of the network, you may be ready to delete your account. The process takes just a few minutes, and all you'll need is your account info.
Snapchat no longer instantly deletes your account. Instead, your account will be suspended for 30 days just in case you change your mind and want to begin using it again. In that case, just log into the Snapchat app or the account web page to reactivate your account.
Otherwise, 30 days later your account will be deleted.
Large businesses, electricity suppliers and government agencies around the world are being affected by a strain of malware widely known as Petya. Even a chocolate factory has been hit.
At first, it was believed that it was ransomware, because it essentially locks down an infected computer and a ransom note appears on-screen. The note demands $300, paid via bitcoin, in return for unlocking the infected computers. This attack closely mimics the WannaCry ransomware attack that affected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries in May.
So, it's ransomware, right? Well, probably not. The payment system the hackers set up is pretty much useless. They used only one address for their bitcoin payment, which has already been shut down by the email provider. It's believed that the ransomware was just a cover for malware designed to do a lot of damage, particularly to the Ukrainian government. Besides rendering a computer and its data useless, there is also a Trojan inside of Petya that steals victims' usernames and passwords.
It's not really 'Petya'
Petya is actually a name for an older version of the malware. When key differences emerged, researchers gave it various different names to mark it as a new strain of Petya. GoldenEye seems to have stuck.
How to protect against it
There are two ways Petya/GoldenEye attacks a computer. "The exploit attacks vulnerable Windows Server Message Block (SMB) service, which is used to share files and printers across local networks," said David Sykes, business security expert at Sophos. "Microsoft addressed the issue in its MS17-010 bulletin in March, but the exploit proved instrumental in the spread of WannaCry last month. The new Petya variant can also spread by using a version of the Microsoft PsExec tool in combination with admin credentials from the target computer."
These problems have been patched, but some people have not downloaded the fix, so it keeps spreading. Your first line of defense is to be sure you have the latest version of Windows: If you have automatic updates turned on, you're safe. The update should already be installed to your computer.
If you don't have auto update on, you can download the security update here:
Windows has a download page for all versions available here.
Next, make sure that your antivirus software is up to date. Most antivirus companies already have patches out that block Petya and this new version of it.
Lastly, take sensible everyday precautions. Sykes recommends backing up your computer regularly and keeping a recent backup copy off-site. And don't open attachments in emails unless you know who they're from and you're expecting them.
When Windows 10 first released, turning off Cortana was as simple as flipping a switch in the digital assistant’s settings, but Microsoft removed the option in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Now there’s no obvious way to disable Cortana—but it is possible using not-so-obvious methods.
Completely eradicating Cortana requires a quick and easy registry edit, which we’ll detail here. If you don’t want Cortana spying on you but also detest the idea of mucking with your PC’s deepest software innards, PCWorld’s guide to privacy-boosting Cortana tweaks can show you how to limit the personal information it sends Microsoft. Cortana will still run in the background with limited functionality if you don’t perform the registry edit, though.
How to turn off Cortana in Windows 10
Hold your horses! As simple as this is, it’s always a good idea to create a system restore point before editing the Windows registry—so go ahead and do that now. It only takes a minute. (Ironically, the easiest way to do so is to search for “restore point” with Cortana.)
With that out of the way, let’s start registry hacking.
Brad Chacos/IDG
Press Windows Key + R simultaneously on your keyboard to bring up the Run interface, then type regedit into the box and press Enter. Depending on your security settings you may be prompted to give Windows permission to run the Registry Editor. If so, do so.
Once the Registry Editor is open, navigate to the following folder in the left-hand navigation pane: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Policies > Microsoft > Windows > Windows Search.
Brad Chacos/IDG
Here’s the only potentially tricky part: You might not see a Windows Search folder. If it isn’t there, right-click the Windows folder, select New > Key, and name it Windows Search.
Brad Chacos/IDG
With the Windows Search folder selected in the left-hand navigation pane, right-click in the main portion of the window and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. A new listing will appear in the main pane, ready to be named; christen it AllowCortana. Afterward, double-click it and in the box that appears, ensure that the Value Data is set to '0'—minus the quotation marks.
Brad Chacos/IDG
That’s it! Close the Registry Editor, then sign out of Windows 10. When you sign back in, Cortana will be long gone. The digital assistant’s former field remains in the Windows 10 task bar, but it now reads “Search Windows” and tellingly lacks Cortana’s all-seeing eye icon.
You won’t be able to use any Cortana-enabled features in the dumbed-down search field, like setting reminders, getting personalized news, receiving up-to-date travel info, or asking goofy questions. You will be able to search for files, system settings, and terms as before. That said, you won’t be able to tap Cortana’s smarts to perform natural language queries like “Find pictures from June” either, so narrowing down file search results may take a bit more work.
Brad Chacos/IDG
Adios, Cortana.
Speaking of which, wiping Cortana’s previous memories of you from Microsoft’s servers takes an extra step. Head to Microsoft’s privacy dashboard website, sign into your Microsoft account, and clear whatever personal data you want Microsoft to forget. Be warned: Your choices may also affect other Microsoft services, like Bing, Edge, and Maps.
Cortana isn’t totally dead, though. You’ll still see the process lurking in Task Manager if you pay attention. Kill it and it’ll immediately spring back to life. Your search queries nevertheless stay strictly local.
If you ever decide resummon Cortana, simply retrace your steps in the Registry Editor and either delete the AllowCortana value, or simply set it to “1” instead of “0.”
Common sense only goes so far and you need to make sure that best practices around security don't go in one ear and out the other. Here's your attack plan.
When it comes to cybersecurity, software company AutoClerk makes sure that its 25 employees know they are on the front lines of something akin to a life-and-death battle.
"If they're not aware of cybersecurity before we hire them, we'll make them aware," said Charlotte Gibb, co-owner of the Walnut Creek, California developer that supplies software to the hotel and hospitality industry. "Our customers are often targets of cyberattacks and so we have to be very alert as to how this might affect our customers. We take cybersecurity very seriously."
She should. Cybercriminals are taking special aim at small businesses. About 18 percent of phishing campaigns targeted small businesses in 2011; the number has since soared to more than 43 percent of the total with phishing now the main vehicle for delivering ransomware and malware attacks.
The threats aren't confined to phishing emails. Most security breaches stem from careless employee decisions. Cybercriminals will try to infiltrate an organization by using social engineering tactics to gain employee trust. Or they might just leave around infected USB flash drives, hoping someone picks one up and plugs it into their computer. One newly popular ploy is the business email compromise in which scammers target employees who have access to company finances to fool them into sending wire transfers to fake bank accounts.
All can wreak havoc. About 60 percent of small businesses are unable to maintain their business more than six months after suffering a cyberattack, according to the US National Cyber Security Alliance.
Beating back the threat hinges on convincing employees to put in practice what they're taught about cybersecurity. Even then, there are still no guarantees employees will do the right thing.
"Unless you're willing to make your workplace uncomfortable and hang over someone's shoulder, you don't really know," Gibb said. "You basically have to trust your employees. At some point, you need to have a level of trust with the people who you've hired because you're entrusting them with your customers and your critical information."
Making the message stick
It's a popular -- and accurate -- cliche in the security industry that employees constitute a company's first line of defense against malicious or criminal activity. And that's why it's essential to keep preaching the gospel until best practices around cybersecurity become second nature to your people.
Education is the key to teach employees a shared sense of responsibility for the data that they work with. Any campaign should become part of an ongoing process. While some small businesses may feel they lack the resources, there are ways to direct an effective cybersecurity education campaign without breaking the bank.
● Don't opt for scare tactics. The goal is to build a culture of cyber awareness, so treat security awareness like a marketing campaign with the intent to persuade.
● Start small with a few videos or infographics to kick things off. Include posters, contests and other reminders to drive home an easy-to-understand message: security is everyone's personal responsibility.
● Don't waste time sending out long memos that will only get ignored. Keep it fun, keep it short. You're trying to educate employees about best practices, not forcing them eat their spinach. When everyone can have a good laugh, they can also learn at the same time.
USB thumb drive: carrot or stick?
Getty Images/iStockphoto
● Promote the theme with quarterly follow-up campaigns that stress cybersecurity awareness. Follow up the training by testing how well the lesson was learned. Send out occasional phony phishing emails to check how many employees still fail to recognize the threat.
Changing employee behavior may sound like a daunting task. But even if you can't eliminate all cyberattacks against the organization, you can still foster conditions that help reduce the threat. If employees walk away from the program with a more serious appreciation of basic cybersecurity, that's already progress in spades.
Carrots and sticks
"A security breach would destroy our reputation and could bankrupt the company," says David Cox, the CEO of LiquidVPN, a VPN supplier in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
It's a sobering scenario and it's why he deploys a constant mix of carrots and sticks to keep his staff "on its toes." For instance, Cox periodically drops a keystroke injection device disguised as a USB thumb drive in a hallway, bathroom or lobby. "If someone plugs it into one of our workstations, I get a report that contains their user account and device ID," he said.
He also contracts a third-party service that specializes in fake phishing and malware attacks. If someone fails a test or gets hit by a real attack, they get pulled aside and interviewed to figure out why it succeeded.
"We try to demonstrate what could happen if they do not take cybersecurity seriously and I reward employees that are proactive," according to Cox.
At the same time, if an employee does something exceptional or somehow demonstrates a high level of situational awareness, they get rewarded with tickets to a game, dinner for two or an Amazon gift certificate.
But in the end, the stakes are too high to let poor cybersecurity performance continue indefinitely.
"We give employees adequate training and if they are not able to demonstrate the kind of situational awareness our industry requires I would have no choice but to let them go," he said. "That hasn't yet happened. And I sincerely hope it does not."
Our Surface Laptop review looks at Microsoft’s new notebook in two ways: as a stylish ultrabook, designed and priced to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air for college students’ favor. But it’s also a machine purpose-built for Windows 10 S, which restricts users to Windows Store apps but allows an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. We’ve therefore reviewed the Surface Laptop using its native Windows 10 S, but will add to our review once we make the leap to Windows 10 Pro, which offers the freedom to load any app you choose.
After several days using the Surface Laptop as a Windows 10 S machine, though, I can already say it does a great job of addressing exactly what college students need. For other users intrigued by it, though, I might look a bit further afield, or at least bail out of Windows 10 S early on.
Dan Masaoka
The tinted aluminum exterior of the Surface Laptop gleams, especially with color options like burgundy.
The Surface Laptop follows in the formidable footsteps of the Surface Pro, Surface Book, and Surface Studio—all category-defining products with prices to match. The Surface Laptop is a striking ultrabook with prices that are attainable, if not exactly affordable. For now, the Surface Laptop ships in four configurations:
Intel Core i5/4GB RAM/128GB SSD: $999
Intel Core i5/8GB RAM/256GB SSD: $1,299
Intel Core i7/8GB RAM/256GB SSD: $1,599
Intel Core i7/16GB RAM/512GB SSD: $2,199
Microsoft also separately ships a Surface Arc Mouse, which is color-coordinated to match the Surface Laptop. The Surface Pen and Surface Dial will work with the Laptop, but they’re not required.
We reviewed the $1,299 model, which I’d consider to be the price/performance sweet spot, assuming a college student with generous parents. Though gamers want 16GB of RAM, 8GB is sufficient for web browsing and some basic apps, and 256GB of storage is finally becoming more of the norm.
Just as important as what’s inside is the Surface Laptop’s outside, which is dressed to kill MacBook Airs. Lifting the tinted aluminum veneer of the lid to reveal the softer Alcantara fabric of the keyboard tray beneath evokes the elegance of a jewelry box. Microsoft also streamlined the exterior by eliminating the volume control rocker switch and power button, moving them to the keyboard.
Mark Hachman
Microsoft offers four colors for the Surface Laptop, though they’re currently not available throughout the full product line.
The Surface Laptop is very thin, just 0.57 inches at most, compared to the MacBook Air’s 0.68-inch profile. At 12.13 x 8.79 inches, it’s also a little smaller than the MacBook Air. Grab the Surface Laptop by its keyboard, and its 2.76-pound weight (3.2 pounds with charger) will feel impressively light.
There’s one catch: The base $999 Core i5 model ships only in the silvery “platinum” color. The only configuration to offer the three other color options (graphite gold, burgundy, cobalt blue) is the model we tested. While Microsoft should eventually offer the additional colors across the entire product line, it hasn’t yet—a situation that’s sure to frustrate some consumers.
Dan Masaoka
“Thin and light” defines the Surface Laptop.
A surprising lack of ports
Thin ultrabooks have to give up something, and the Surface Laptop’s configuration is no different. Most of it is good: Our unit houses a 2.5GHz Core i5-7200U, part of the 7th-generation Kaby Lake family. Each of the Core i5 options includes an Intel HD 620 graphics core, while the Core i7 version includes the powerful (for integrated graphics, that is) Iris Plus 640 core which we tested on the new Surface Pro. For college papers and web browsing, an HD 620 core will be just fine.
One of the hallmarks of the Surface lineup is the display, and I enjoy Microsoft’s bright PixelSense 10-point touchscreens. The Surface Laptop’s 13.5-inch, 2256x1504 (201 ppi) version, aligned in Microsoft’s standard 3:2 ratio, lives up to the name. The IPS panel pumps out 365 lumens, enough even for outdoor use.
Some competing devices offer 4K displays. Keep in mind, though, that pushing more pixels requires more power, and one of the strengths of the Surface Laptop is its excellent battery life.
Mark Hachman
The sides of the Laptop chassis angle in, making inserting the Surface Laptop charger blade a bit awkward sometimes.
On the right side of the Laptop is Microsoft’s Surface connector, maintaining compatibility with older chargers as well as optional peripherals like the Surface Dock. The other ports—USB 3.0 Type A, miniDisplayPort, headphone—appear on the left side of the chassis.
There is no miniSD or other removable storage slot, recognition that photos and other files are more often stored online or on USB sticks. I can agree with that rationale, though the single USB-A port looks awfully lonely, and the lack of USB-C is the opposite of future-proofing.
Mark Hachman
Would an additional USB connector have killed you, Microsoft?
The Surface Laptop reclines about as far as the Surface Book, about 50 degrees or so off the horizontal. Unlike the Surface Book, however, there’s no accordion hinge. Instead, an barely-visible hinge smoothly moves the display back and forth. The screen tends to wobble a bit when inking or when the keyboard moves sharply.
The keyboard: Microsoft kept what works, mostly
You can sum up the Surface Laptop’s keyboard simply: Aside from one small modification, Microsoft bundled the Surface Pro’s backlit keyboard with the Surface Book’s touchpad. The space allocated to the keyboard on both devices is literally the same—4 x 10.75 inches—and the touchpad dimensions on both the Book and the Laptop are identical.
Dan Masaoka
Though the Laptop doesn’t require the Surface Pen, it immediately wrote and “erased” digital ink, without any setup.
That said, the Surface Laptop’s typing experience falls slightly short of the Surface Book’s. I prefer the fluidity of the Surface Book’s keys. There’s also a bit of structural give in the Laptop’s keyboard that isn’t present on the Book. To test it, I placed a small screw between the R, T, F, and G keys. On the Laptop, I noticed a bit of bowing that wasn’t present on the Surface Book, which expresses itself as a slightly mushy feel that’s independent of the keys.
Dan Masaoka
Surface Book trackpad, meet the Surface Pro (2017) keyboard.
The Surface Laptop’s touchpad feels great, slightly oilier than the Book’s aluminum surface. Clicking and gestures worked as expected.
A pair of “omnisonic” speakers are buried beneath the keyboard. The volume reaches satisfactory levels, slightly vibrating the keys as you type upon them. Naturally, there’s not a lot of bass, and I’d recommend headphones.
Mark Hachman
I never powered off the Laptop by accident, but it’s still an odd place to put such an important button.
Windows 10 S: Lack of choice is frustrating
In a bid to make the Surface Laptop as manageable as Chromebooks powered by Google’s Chrome OS, Microsoft designed the Surface Laptop and other education-minded PCs around Windows 10 S, an optimized version of Windows 10. Windows 10 S restricts Surface Laptop users to apps found within the Windows Store, and adds a few manageability features found in Windows 10 Pro to help administrators keep tabs on the devices. (For a deeper dive into Windows 10 S, please see our Windows 10 S FAQ.)
Dan Masaoka
Part of the way to identify a Windows 10 S machine is with this custom background image, seen here.
Windows 10 S provides an extra layer of security, Microsoft says, as well as quicker boot times than Windows 10 Pro. Holes have already been poked through these claims: Windows 10 S was breached by a researcher using Word macros, which are only blocked if you have an Office 365 subscription. And in our tests, the Surface Laptop took 19 seconds to cold-boot to the desktop, compared to 14 seconds for a Surface Book running Windows 10 Pro. Our Surface Laptop did, however, come with device encryption enabled, helping protect files from unauthorized access. That’s a feature normally associated with Windows 10 Pro.
Restricting Windows 10 S users to the Windows Store understandably concerns some users. For one, you’re subject to the whims of Microsoft: As longtime users know, Microsoft’s Store has ranged from abysmal to where it is now, an adequate to decent experience. Unfortunately, not every app within the Store can be used by Windows 10 S, including some Win32 apps that Microsoft has begun publishing. If you do try to use a prohibited app, you’ll know it: A popup window will appear, with a link to the Windows 10 Pro upgrade at the bottom.
Mark Hachman
You can move apps around like any other file, but you simply can’t run them unless they’re Microsoft-approved.
Microsoft recently made its Office apps accessible through the Store in preview, and they worked smoothly, without any bugs that I could find. The Surface Laptop ships with a year’s subscription to Office 365 Personal, good for a single device like the Laptop.
The biggest app hurdle that Windows 10 S users will likely encounter, though, is something rather prosaic: their choice of browser. Because browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera aren’t found within the Store, you’ll be forced to use Edge. Exporting bookmarks from another browser and importing them into Edge is simply a pain—and forget about saved passwords. Worse, Edge Favorites I’d saved in a Windows 10 Pro machine refused to carry over to Windows 10 S. Windows 10 S also returns search results from Bing alone, though nothing prevents you from bookmarking Google.com.
IDG
Many common apps aren’t in the Microsoft Store. Fortunately, Microsoft Office is one of the exceptions—but you’ll need to use the built-in “Get Office” app to find it.
That web-based approach works well for some apps that haven’t made it into the Store. I’ve never been a fan of using a dedicated Windows app for Twitter, for example, though I use Slack’s app. With Edge, I could put both services into a tab and snap them to a corner of my screen.
I was a little shocked to discover that apps I didn’t consider to be apps were also blocked, namely the Command Line. It doesn’t appear within Windows 10 S, and commands that would normally launch Command Line or PowerShell simply don’t work—or, if they do, a Command Line window will blink into existence and then “pop,” or crash.
Mark Hachman
Upgrading to Windows 10 Pro can be done via the Microsoft Store.
For those users who want a little more, Windows 10 S does provide an escape hatch: a built-in upgrade path to Windows 10 Pro. Until the end of the year, it’s a free upgrade.
Performance: Stellar battery life redeems it
Because we couldn’t run many of our conventional benchmarks on Windows 10 S, we selected browser-based tests that could stress the Surface Laptop. We’ll update this review with additional tests once we upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro.
We compared the Surface Laptop to machines including the Surface Book and the recent Surface Pro. Recall that Microsoft also claims the Core i5 Surface Laptop is 50 percent faster than the Core i7 MacBook Air. We didn’t have a recent MacBook Air to test, so we compared it to the 15-inch MacBook Pro, as well as a Core m3-based MacBook. The Surface Laptop was slower than all of them, at least where these browser-based benchmarks were concerned.
IDG
Both Speedometer and Jetstream measure the responsiveness of Web applications, which is tied to the CPU’s processing power. WebXPRT asks the processor to perform more intensive tasks, such as photo enhancement and album organization. Octane 2.0, a Google benchmark, performs a suite of tests measuring how well a system performs Javascript.
IDG
Just for fun, we also ran a built-in benchmark from Rise of the the Tomb Raider, an game that’s available via the Windows Store. Thirty frames per second is considered to be the minimum for gameplay; the Surface Laptop’s 4 fps is not remotely playable. We’ll dig into this more once we unlock the Laptop with Windows 10 Pro.
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One of the areas in which the Surface Laptop absolutely shines, however, is battery life. Color us a little skeptical after Microsoft’s claims of 13.5 hours for the Surface Pro proved to be only 8 hours. We’re beginning to think that that may have been the fault of the Iris Plus chip, for the battery inside the Surface Laptop with Intel’s HD 620 lasted a whopping 12 hours and 45 minutes, continually stressed as we looped a 4K video. That stamina is what a student needs as they go from class to class and then to the library.
IDG
Conclusion: A great choice for back-to-school
Oddly, the Surface Laptop feels like progress forward and back, all at once. Microsoft originally designed the Surface lineup to hustle its hardware partners faster into the future, implicitly stripping Apple of its design cachet and encouraging consumers to buy new PCs. Now, the Surface Laptop has stepped down a rung, challenging some of the cheaper, more mainstream product lines of its hardware partners to keep up. Laptops like HP’s latest Spectre x360 already do, but other vendors could use a push.
As someone who enjoys diving down into a Settings menu or adjusting the registry, Windows 10 S feels cramped. I have to believe most college students will encounter some app they either need or want before too long, and chafe at the restrictions. Sure, the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro is free for now, but it should be free forever.
Mark Hachman
Microsoft’s Surface Book (top), the Surface Laptop, and an Apple MacBook Air from 2010.
I’m also still a bit leery of Microsoft’s port choices. Apple received praise for eliminating the floppy drive and DVD-ROM, but received criticism for the single Lightning port that forced users into a web of dongles. In four years, will students curse Microsoft’s cheapness, and reluctance to invest in USB-C? Maybe, though today a USB-A connector is still the right choice. The tipping point to USB-C isn’t that far away, though.
That doesn’t change what Microsoft has accomplished with the Surface Laptop. Decent performance, a stylish exterior, and outstanding battery life check all the boxes of a product designed to upend the MacBook Air. Sure, the Surface Laptop might not have as much to write home about as its fancier Surface kin. But for Microsoft, that’s nothing as long as the Surface Laptop is what those students are writing on.
