We all like to be acknowledged for our cleverness, but it can lead to problems down the road. There are dozens of preparedness groups on social media, where people show everyone their great ideas, thinking it’s all like-minded and safe people. They may all very well be. But what do you think will happen after the lights have been out for 3 weeks and one of your FB friends has kids who haven’t eaten in over a week. They’ll remember your neat “hidden cans behind the wall” and come to collect. Also, I know this is hard to believe, but not everyone one the internet is exactly what or who they purport to be. Shocking, I know.
Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.
Proverbs 21:23
Even if everyone in your “private” Facebook group is 100% solid, they’re going to tell their friends about your “cool idea”, and word will get out. We have to learn to not share so much. This idea is called INFOSEC or Information Security and it’s part of a larger topic called Tradecraft.
In fact, the “gray man tactics” everyone argues about online are nothing more than tradecraft. While Fieldcraft are the skills to keep us safe and unseen in a tactical environment, Tradecraft are the skills to keep us safe and unidentified as a threat in the intelligence/criminal environment. The same skills intelligence operatives use to be undetected by hostile nation states and law enforcement will keep you safe from the criminal element as well.
So, step one is guarding the information you give out. It’s not just our food storage, we see this everything. People post their guns, their backpacking gear, fuel storage, everything. Stop doing that. Before you tell me about your cool “OPSEC” screen name or handle that is not your own name, understand that IP address of your internet connection, the MAC addresses of your phone, computer, and router, and the IMEI/IMSI numbers of your phone are all tied to that “pseudonym” and it’s nowhere near as anonymous as you think. Same with your “private” email account – when you put your ProtonMail or TutaMail account on your PHONE you tie it to the IMEI/IMSI of the phone.
A note about VPN’s: unless they are specifically told and set up to do so, VPN’s don’t mask your MAC addresses.
Start studying online security. Take the Ground Rod levels 1 & 2 courses from Combat Studies Group and subscribe to MARK37.com (just click here). Buy a secure phone, laptop, or tablet from either Combat Studies Group or MARK37. Taking the SIGINT Crouse from NC Scout will open your eyes to how targeting occurs.
Consider the image you present to the world. Wearing your political T Shirt might get you smiles and nods, but it might also get you targeted. Bumper stickers, flags, and signs at home do the same thing. Understand the environment you’re going to be in each day. What I can wear in small, wilderness community isn’t the same things I’d wear going to Missoula or Bozeman, as it would mark me as an outsider who probably doesn’t think much like the locals in those areas. Understand too that wearing gear from the wrong “sportsball” team in many areas can get you targeted as well.
Stop taking FB quizzes or doing the “Twitter Circle” thing. You are not only providing vital “pattern of life” data that those companies sell to literally anyone, but you are also buiding “link charts” that can be used to map out your connections and group hierarchy (order of battle/organizational chart). They might seem fun, but you are leaking metadata and, as General Hayden famously said, “We kill people based on metadata”. Look at the killing of Khameini….he had excellent OPSEC and no cell phone, but they killed him by tracking the cell phone metadata of his bodyguards. That’s “Twitter Circle” writ large…..they simply found all his known associates and struck where they all gathered.
I know that modern society has made us literally tied to our cell phones. They made them addictive and so useful that most of society cannot function without them. Resist this trend. Stop taking your phoen everywhere, especially to sensitive places and events. Google Maps is very convenient, but it’s also very convenient for anyone who wants a record of your travels or to analyze where you go regularly. I have a SLNT Faraday sleeve for my phone and it lives in it until I need it. Because my phone gets no cell connection here, I only turn it on at home, where the connection is through a secure router (provided by Combat Studies Group) and a Starlink connection that is not in my name.
Living out here with spotty coverage has taught me that I don’t need to carry a phone to go about my day. You don’t really need to either, it’s just very convenient. Not that long ago, we didn’t have cell phones. We lived and got along just fine. If someone needed me and I wasn’t home, they just tried again later. Yes, really.
Putting your phone in a Faraday sleeve is helpful and can stop voice recording or a signal getting out, but there are internal inertial tracking devices that can recreate your route. Leaving it at home is probably better. Or, leaving it somewhere onther than home, like a mall locker or similar.
If you are attending a meeting and everyone puts their phone in their Faraday sleeve outside the event, all you’ve done is told whoever is watching that something interesting happened at that location because several signals went dark at the same place at the same time. You also gave them start and end times to start looking at Flock/Traffic camera footage. You’re not being as stealthy as you think. Think ahead and leave it at home.
I got my first SLNT bag from BattlBox. Click the picture above and get great gear sent to your home every month at about 50%-67% of the retail price. They’ve been absolutely great to me. Once, after I used a bunch of medical gear from BattlBox at an accident scene, they sent me replacement items. Great people, especially Brandon Currin.
I know, we’re doing nothing wrong and have nothing to hide. The fact is, criminals will still target you. Honestly, Homeland Security has never rescinded their guidance that an interest in “being prepared” or “Constitutional Rights” is an indicator of extremism, so “not doing anything wrong” doesn’t mean you won’t be targeted. Data harvesters are something to defend against as well.
Put some tradecraft into practice and limit your exposure. I’ll be doing a tradecraft review for subscribers at tacticalwisdom.locals.com on Friday. Sign up to get the link and time.
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Tactical Wisdom 