This is (hopefully) my first piece on Operational Security.
I created this for a specific group, but as I state in the final paragraph this document is intended for wide distribution.
If you share it with your own groups, you may do so with or without attribution.
Ok.
You will probably see that this document is not super formal, and not super technical. This is why: I don't want to bore everyone. If you only read one document in the series, I want it to make sense to you and not put you to sleep. Operational Security (OPSEC) can be very dry and very technical if you want it to be, but it is also vital to survival of any movement in the current environment. So, for this one, I am going to try to keep it simple.
First, there is a process commonly associated with OPSEC. It can be summarized as:
- Identify critical information.
- Identify threats.
- Assess risks and vulnerabilities.
- Apply appropriate measures.
Basically, decide what you need to protect, what the dangers are, and what you can do about it.
For the purposes of this group, right here, I will make it simple:
Critical Information
Our names, our locations, what plans we might have, anything that might be considered "interesting" to 4chan. There is more to it than that, but these are the bits that tie it to us and make it personal.
Threats
You aren't going to like this one. The biggest threat at this stage is us. We are our own worst enemies. Scroll through the list of people in the group on the various platforms where it exists. How many of those people do you know personally? How many could be here just to stir the pot?
I am not saying this to seed division. Take care of each other. Hold each other close. Keep your mouths shut about anything actionable in the public feed. And yes, a private group is public for our purposes unless you personally know every last person in the list or trust the person vouching for them damned well.
Risks and Vulnerabilities
This is going to vary from time to time.
At the moment, this is pretty much a mirror image of the Threats section, so I am not going to rewrite the speech here. At the moment, there is a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, and a lot of venting. Just make sure that while you are venting, to not say anything that might be considered actionable by federal or local authorities.
And for the love of whatever you hold divine, if you decide to go "operational" in any way shape or form, don't talk about it in the main feed. Assume the main feed is public. Assume the main feed is being monitored.
Appropriate Measures
Again, part of it is my writing style and part of it is how I think about opsec, but it all kind of runs in together. I already hinted at the appropriate measures in the previous section. The big thing is this, though:
Remember that we are living in a police state, and have been for at least 17 years.
Remember that practicing proper opsec not only protects you, but protects your comrades as well. Some of them may be in jobs where they are at more risk if they are being caught.
If you decide to do anything potentially actionable, do not talk about it in the main feed. Contact those you feel may be interested and/or of use and take it to the side. Do your best to organize it in a way that is unlikely to be monitored.
Try to do it this for anything that will be organized, even if it is as simple as a campaign to plaster fliers all over a city, or take adversarial fliers down.
Also, be careful of the language that you use. Adversary may not be as "strong" or as specific a word as Enemy, but it is a safer word to use in a potentially hostile or continually changing environment.
Don't talk about anything illegal in the main feed.
Don't talk about anything that you want to avoid getting shut down in the main feed.
If you are planning an action, the extent of discussion in the main feed should likely be a link to where it is being discussed or better yet a point of contact to contact to get access to the discussion.
The key is to keep our measures/countermeasures simple enough that we aren't going to drop them when they get tiresome, but strong enough to keep the wrong people out of the wrong spaces.
Closing
Ok. Again. I am not wanting you to look at each other with distrust. I just see where things are going here and in the country at large (and if you are in the UK, or any other English speaking country, it's pretty much the same. The US is just the big bright neon orange sign at the moment).
I want to make sure that if things continue down their current path that you guys know how to take care of yourselves and stay safe.
Also, if you feel this document has value, feel free to spread it far and wide. I intentionally left out identifying information for the group, both for OPSEC reasons and so that it can apply to anyone.
The left is great at ideas. We are not always so great at implementation. We have a tendency to think with our hearts. That is a good thing, but we also need to make sure to use our heads as well as we move forward.