Intelligence: Porn Police Gone Wild

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September 16, 2006: Last August, Sudan introduced a clever new ploy to gather intelligence. Foreigners entering the country by air had their laptop computers seized at the airport. The police wanted to search the computers for pornography, which is forbidden in Sudan (which is run under Islamic law). The laptops were to be returned within 24 hours. It's uncertain if the objective of this policy was to really find pornography, spy on foreigners, or just further annoy foreigners (who the Sudanese government does not welcome in so many ways.) Laptop users can easily install various security programs on their laptops to hide, and/or, encrypt information they don't want Sudanese police looking at. It's not known if anyone has done that yet, or if the Sudanese have found any porn on the seized laptops.

 

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