Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you’re entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days.

I won’t set foot down the “we’re becoming a police state” path, I just want to focus on what this means for traveling musicians and businessfolk. So, to quote the legendary Dick Clark:

Protect your ass at all times.

If you haven’t figured out by now that Geek Squad, Apple technicians, and any other hardware support people can (and typically will) copy your music library for their own personal collection (if not your entire hard drive), then you’re just not paying attention. Heck, even auto mechanics will rip all the CD’s in your car if you leave it with them overnight.

The best solution for us Mac people has got to be the sparse disk image. Using Disk Utility, you can make a file that acts just like a disk- a 256-bit encrypted password-protected disk. That’s the kind of protection that requires a supercomputer to unravel. If the government thinks you’re a terrorist, they can get past it, but the time and computing power necessary will be reserved for more than casual use.

What about FileVault? If you’ve used it for more than a week, you’re probably sick of it already. It’s slow, cumbersome, and breaks a lot of the Mac’s functionality (like Automator). A sparse disk image is only as big as the files you store in it (unlike regular disk images) and gives the same level of software encryption.

So if you have sensitive financial data, intellectual property, trade secrets, or that DVD rip of Hot Grannies In Thongs IV (you’re weird, by the way), you can at least protect yourself from casual snoops and identity theft by keeping it all under lock and key… without having to lock down your entire hard drive.

Any other recommendations? Please discuss. Any America-bashing or even government-bashing will not be tolerated, so please remain civil.