OPSEC for insurgents

[7SFCW4]

For those interested in such things (staying alive). How moderm Intelligence operations work the corners:http://thelizardfarmer.wordpress.com/ . GuerillAmerica has published their first copy of Forward Observer magazine, well worth every penny Lizard article is called "How thwy hunt"

Read More

 

[The Heretic]

He left a significant component out:

Any cell phone you have on you, that is turned on, will be constantly telling the cell phone network where it is within a few hundred yards.

You don't need financial records to pick up the fact that a person has a separate phone that isn't associated with their name - you just need to look at the cell tower records and pick out which phone traveled along at the same time as your personal phone. It would not take more than a day or two of both phones being turned on at the same time and carried on your person while you went about your daily routine for a computer search to return a high probability that the cash phone was in your immediate vicinity throughout the day.

Indeed, in some circumstances, it wouldn't take but one or two calls made on the phone from your home, workplace, etc., to show a probability that it was associated with you - whether you had your personal phone turned on or not.

So the practice would be to pay cash for the phone, don't have your personal phone turned on when buying the cash phone, and don't have both phones turned on at the same time or same place. Don't use the cash phone anywhere that can be associated with you - like your home, workplace, etc. - or anyplace that can be associated with family or friends.

Indeed, turning off your personal phone is another clue they can use - leave it turned on, but leave it at home if you are going to make a call on the cash phone.

Then there are the surveillance cameras. Especially the store cameras and traffic cameras. The red light and speeding cams have license plate recog built into the system. So do cop car cameras. Some will probably have facial recog added to the license plate recog features. All those cams can be used to fill a database with license plates numbers and then by extension your id.

Personally, the whole scenario is screwed up. I don't prepare for SHTF scenarios where such measures will be necessary. I am much more likely to have to deal with a heavy snowfall keeping me at home, a wind storm toppling trees and taking out power, a forest fire, earthquake, flood, volcano (yes, we have all those things happen here - I've seen them all in my lifetime), than I am to have to deal with some kind of "1984" Big Brother scenario.

 

[The Heretic]

As for computers.

Don't use your personal computer.

Get a used laptop with WiFi from a yard sale, or some other source where you are just another Joe off the street. Pay cash.

Never turn it on at home, much less use it at home. Don't turn it on or use it any place that can be associated with you. Don't have either of your phones (personal or cash) turned on while the computer is on - leaving the battery out of the cash phone is best. Remember that there is a difference between sleeping/hibernation for a computer and having it turned off completely. Power the computer completely off - some computers are now adding functionality to get email/etc., while they are "sleeping".

Use the laptop with a free public WiFi hotspot that can't be associated with you, but be aware of surveillance cams. If you sit in your car using the laptop outside a grocery store or public library, or across from a bank, or a convenience store, it is quite possible that a cam can pickup at least the general make/model of your car, quite possibly your license plate, maybe even your face. All the gov has to do is figure out that a particular comm was made from a particular place (the WiFi access point) and then go around with a subpoena/search warrant to get any vid/pics from cams around that spot.

They may get you coming and going, they may get you sitting there.

Don't use the laptop at the same place repeatedly.

Conversely, if they got you on a cam at the time and place that the laptop connects to the internet, and they got you multiple different places at each of those times, then plausible deniability becomes harder. What are the chances that you were coincidentally at the library when the laptop was used once? What are the chances you were coincidentally at the library when it was used, and coincidentally at the Safeway, and coincidentally at the Taco Bell, and coincidentally at some other place - each time when the laptop was used? Each time they got you at another spot when the laptop is used is one more nail in the coffin as the probabilities reduce exponentially until it is almost a certainty that it was you using that laptop.

If you are going to do some op, trash any evidence, including the laptop. And by "trash" I don't mean drop it in your own garbage can. Destroy the evidence thoroughly in a place not associated with you (including not taking your phone to that place) - preferably in multiple different places - then dispose of the evidence in some way that it won't be easily found (i.e., don't put it in a trash can).

 

[7SFCW4]

"...Then there are the surveillance cameras. Especially the store cameras and traffic cameras. The red light and speeding cams have license plate recog built into the system. So do cop car cameras. Some will probably have facial recog added to the license plate recog features. All those cams can be used to fill a database with license plates numbers and then by extension your id..."

The Morovision MVB-902111-IR Phoenix JR. IR Beacon can be an option for surveillance camera areas. This is only ONE of many such items, [ http://www.amazon.com/Morovision-MV...96279&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=firefly+infra+red ].

"...Don't use the laptop at the same place repeatedly...." Download and install a copy of "Net Stumbler", a WI-FI mapping piece of software, drive around looking for open WI-FI networks and make commo from those.

If you can, find a commercial gravel operation and pay to have your electronics destroyed in the machine that makes big rocks into little rocks. We did this and mixed the electronic nuggets in asphalt to pave range roads with. This is not easy nor for everyone that I understand. A smart, cohesive group could use an industrial wood shipper for most of the components, a Harbor Freight 20 ton hydraulic press makes short work of hard drives.

 

[Doc In UPlace]

Don't forget to lay in a good supply of this: http://www.amazon.com/Boardwalk-711...&qid=1402199988&sr=8-7&keywords=aluminum+foil

 

[Doc In UPlace]

Just kidding BTW. But the truth is, to the alphabet agencies we are not at all interesting. That's the one saving grace to the situation.

 

[The Heretic]

Agreed.

For the most part I doubt anybody in the government is all that interested in most people here - I hope.

My posts were hypothetical - not advice on how to use the internet for the typical citizen. If I was taking my own advice I wouldn't even be here.

As I said in my first post, I don't prepare for such scenarios as they are highly unlikely.

That said, the government is collecting and analyzing data as if such scenarios would happen on a small scale. Big Brother is watching, and then some - a lot more than most of us ever thought they did.

 

[7SFCW4]

...ah yes, tin foil hat...that must be humor!

For years I too took a very hands off approach, lurking, never interacting. That is certainly a better guarantor of longevity. However, no one can go it alone, groups of like minded people have the highest likelihood for survival. If we didn't take the newbies out shooting for the first time, who would? They would just be added drone like to the nanny-state mob. If we didn't show young people how to can, garden, replace their brake pads, crop rotation, etc... They just become more and more comfortable with their golden handcuffs.

Granted, all this data collection hasn't stopped or identified one single "pre-crime" terrorist event since 9/11 and it probably won't. However, the goals are more focused elsewhere.

Thanx for the link on low cost aluminum foil, perhaps I'll stock up.

For those of you that are reading this without commenting, "Forward Observer" magazine, volume II recently hit the street. Enjoy.

 

[7SFCW4]

For those of you that are interested, on YOUTUBE, Analytical Survival has a good starter video on using your scanner wisely, a good introduction to the concept:

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Don't forget to lay in a good supply of this: http://www.amazon.com/Boardwalk-7114-Premium-Aluminum-Thickness/dp/B004NEW8VS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1402199988&sr=8-7&keywords=aluminum foil

Sorry, I'd have to check a small amount first. I never wrap my head in foil that I wouldn't cook with!

 

[AMProducts]

If this is a topic that interests you, you may want to read the RAND corporation's monograph report: netwar:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1382.html

Network analysis has become a major field of study with big data for a number of applications, everything from marketing baby formula to finding and killing insurgents.

I also came across this the other day:

http://netwar.wordpress.com/

Very different bent than the OP's blog, but still contains some very valid observations.

 

[7SFCW4]

​

This is the primary .GOV motivator, where OPSEC is concerned look up Forbes magazine "policing for profit"

http://www.forbes.com/sites/institu...-texas-seize-millions-by-policing-for-profit/