The "hard" part is really just getting the data off the computer in the first place, which is probably why they don't allow bringing in technology anymore.
I wonder how much of a micro computer could be smuggled in one or two parts at a time, stored in articles of clothing, with the intent of simply saving data to a micro SD card which would be the only thing you need to smuggle back out. You would need to be able to assemble the device without soldering.
I guess the easiest would be to build a digital camera to record the screen or photos instead of trying to plug into the computers themselves which probably have robust host intrustion detection and prevention. Or perhaps if you could just record the digital output of the computer before it reaches the monitor. That could be prevented with some form of HDCP though, I think.
This all sounds kind of like a science fiction movie (or In the Line of Fire or that Snowden movie) but it's an interesting thought exercise in any case.
Pure speculation: I have to imagine they take further steps now as what is "no electronics" now isn't reliably what you can easily see now.
If you want to destroy a piece of electronics quickly put it in a microwave oven and hit start (also don't expect to eat from that oven later - plastic residue etc if it heats up that much is probably not safe to eat). This will destroy usb keys and storage on them, SSDs, laptops, smartphones and data on them. The only kind of data safe is magnetic type hard drives, but they become less and less common these days.
You could even make a kind of "wand" similar to what guys at the airport have for pinpointing metal items on people. Wave it around someone suspected of having a listening or recording device - job done.
So a bad actor would shield them? The primary countermeasure to incredibly small storage is minimizing the availability of devices that could write them on site. That microSD hidden in a nostril won't be of much use if the attacker does not find anything to plug it.
(regarding OP's story: I was kind of expecting it to end with the spaceballs password in heavy use behind all that physical security, still kind of disappointed/relieved)
So you'd have to pull some sort of slight of hand to manage that.
What would that do to, say, an artificial pacemaker? Feels a little, as you say, science fiction.
The customer was some government intelligence agency (he didn't tell me which one). The machine was in a small room, which also had a printer. To get to that room, you had to walk through a big room full of workers at desks.
Before entering that big room, his escort would press a button beside the door that apparently signaled to those in the room that an outsider was going to come through. That would make some audible signal in the room, and start some red lights flashing on the ceiling. Everyone in the room then had to clear their desks, putting all their papers in their drawers and locking them, and returning the most secret document to their safes.
When all that was done, everyone returned to their desks and then someone would open the door, my friend's escort would tell him to not look around, and would escort him through to the room with the machine. The door would be closed and locked, with my friend and the escort in the machine room, and my friend could work on the machine. Out in the big room, the workers would take their work back out and go back to work.
Occasionally, someone in the big room wanted to use the printer in the machine room. Before they could do that, my friend had to be escorted out of the machine room, back through the big room, and out to the corridor...going through that whole "secure the room so an outsider can pass through" procedure to get back out, and then to get back in after the printout had been retrieved.
Unfortunately, my friend had a lunch that day which disagreed with him somewhat, so that afternoon there were also a few times he needed to get to the bathroom, which of course required going through the big room each time.
No comment on the rest / some of it I honestly don't know.
None of the organizations involved share a lot of data / answer questions / you don't ask, and everything is designed around you not knowing.
We outsource pretty much anything to contractors, though.
But I guess the boindfolds also had a psychological effect of "we mean business".
If you lack out a special cabi area for a vehicle, either you are leaving them to their own devices in that area, or limiting the senses of your own staff you put in to watch them.
Finally, it's just a lot more expensive and cumbersome to have a large piece of machinery like that, and more likely to fail. What happens if the engine fails? Do you need a spare now? Using a blindfold as backup means that a blindfold is sufficient, so just use it and any vehicle now works.
"if you black out a special cab area". :/
Is it just me, or does it feel like the SwiftKey keyboard for android has gotten much worse in its autocorrect in the last couple years?
I did a poor / vague job of describing that the blindfold was used inside buildings too. Folks walked with their hand on the shoulder of a guard in front of them from time to time.
Like new a policy, fine leave the blindfold on longer.
Broken blindfold, just grab another.
But say truck with a broken blackout window ... can't go onsite.
But at the gate you couldn't see much of anything. So you effectively never saw the outside of the site, and even parts of the inside of the building.
What you could see, where you could go, all of it seemed to be clearly planned ahead of time and it was just what was essential to complete the task.
But yea, same thing with them being well aware of your arrival before you show up.
It was their underground bunk backup site near DC, think it was Baltimore area. Drove up to a guard in front of chain link fence.
Most of the time we worked with traditional commercial customers that while some were secure, were nothing like I described.
Nobody seemed to have any concern with the policies / security.
I worked for a company that occasionally would service some of our hardware onsite. One customer was a company that did a lot of work for the military and they had "that site" that a few folks visited. Here was how that worked:
Nothing except your body and your clothes left the site, anything you brought stayed onsite (laptops that we brought onsite were left behind / effectively disposable, later you couldn't even bring those, they provided one). All that stuff belonged to the military / whomever you interacted with at the site.
No electronics, cameras, etc that were not previously improved were allowed and you were told you would not be leaving anytime soon if you had something "unexpected or unauthorized".
It was highly suggested that nothing was in your rental car other than your keys, the equipment you needed as they searched the car and the folks would take what they wished.
If you realized you had something you didn't want to in the car it was highly suggested you do not turn around if you are at all close to the location and to drive up and immediately tell them you dorked up and brought something. This was a fairly remote location so the probabbly knew you were coming before you saw the gate and the guards didn't like surprises.
Upon arrival you parked, were blindfolded and driven from the gate to the site, you never actually saw the outside of the site until you were in the building. You were never alone at anytime. Trips to the bathroom while at the site were monitored... in person by a guard with a rifle.
Now all that sounds ominous but everyone reported that the folks there were very professional (not friendly but professional).
The point of that whole story was that even a while ago someone said "any electronics" were a threat and decided that they had to go to extremes to limit their access. Still today I think that was the closest to a "sure" policy.