Laptops get strip search from Customs and Excise

NEWS It emerged today that Customs and Excise routinely checks mobile computers for illegal images. Officers at ports and air terminals target laptop computers, CD-Roms and floppy disks. It uses a variety of scanning techniques to check traveller's hard disks. But a spokesman for Customs and Excise refused to discuss details of how the searches are made. "Obviously we don't wish to put that information in the public domain where it could be abused." He added that searching a computer is no different to searching someone's luggage or their person. He also said the service has not received any complaints or suffered claims of lost data or virus infection since its inception. It has however caught several people with paedophile material on their machines.