According to the news, the US government has intercepted laptops during delivery and installed surveillance kits or trojans. For example: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html
My online activities may have attracted attention from USG (eg. looking at Al Jazeera, presstv and technical forums), and my new laptop, a Lenovo Thinkpad, was delayed a long time in customs. What should I look for to verify it has not been tampered?
Immediately upon receiving it, I replaced the default commercial-ware with Linux, so I am not concerned about the OS or applications. However, I'm wondering:
* how to tell whether it's been opened after the factory
* what parts can be opened "safely" meaning without breaking anything
* what to look for on the inside
* how to verify the BIOS is untampered