>> If you are in an environment in which someone else can physically access your device (like an airport), don't bring it with you.
Agreed.
After going to a few infosec conferences and getting flagged on way home, I started doing this now whenever I travel, no exceptions. Full disclosure: I'm a web developer. I have little if any connections to known hackers or highly public Blue Team members; so I'm still not sure why I got flagged, detained and all my electronic devices (smartphone, laptops, storage devices) seized and searched.
I now use an old windows Lumia 950. No fingerprint sensor, fake email accounts set up for the outlook app and I use a vpn with the mobile IE version on the phone to access web mail accounts. Still get texts ok, but if I need to save something, I just log into my email, copy/paste then delete the texts before I get to the airport.
If I'm stopped now, I can be totally compliant and still have somewhat peace of mind they won't have anything worthwhile.
Since Windows has long since killed off its smartphones, they are easy to get a hold of on ebay and elsewhere. The other nice thing is I'm not sure Microsoft is even tracking users data on these phones anymore so you might have a nice advantage that way too.
Agreed.
After going to a few infosec conferences and getting flagged on way home, I started doing this now whenever I travel, no exceptions. Full disclosure: I'm a web developer. I have little if any connections to known hackers or highly public Blue Team members; so I'm still not sure why I got flagged, detained and all my electronic devices (smartphone, laptops, storage devices) seized and searched.
I now use an old windows Lumia 950. No fingerprint sensor, fake email accounts set up for the outlook app and I use a vpn with the mobile IE version on the phone to access web mail accounts. Still get texts ok, but if I need to save something, I just log into my email, copy/paste then delete the texts before I get to the airport.
If I'm stopped now, I can be totally compliant and still have somewhat peace of mind they won't have anything worthwhile.
Since Windows has long since killed off its smartphones, they are easy to get a hold of on ebay and elsewhere. The other nice thing is I'm not sure Microsoft is even tracking users data on these phones anymore so you might have a nice advantage that way too.
Not 100% the best solution, but better than most.