Element Descriptor
If you’re doing arrestable things, it’s probably best to do them before getting arrested. This entails “opsec” – operational security, i.e. knowing how not just to keep your mouths shut, but also not letting awkward details slipping
Level descriptors
| Novice | Practitioner | Expert | Ninja |
|---|---|---|---|
| You are able to devise and enact a “need to know” basis, while being alive to the fact that the fox may already be in the henhouse… | You are able to get other people to engage in the same reasonable security behaviours as yourself, consistently. While thinking that the walls have ears and Big Brother is watching. | You’ve read “Undercover” and you know about Tempora. You take appropriate measures in different situations, while aware that – big picture – privacy is like that Norwegian Blue parrot… | Your email is anonymous, your web browsing anonymous. You never speak, but merely write things on bits of paper which you then burn. You think Snowden is underestimating the scale of the problem. Yeah, good luck with all that. |
Element Overview Essay
This is a draft. If something doesn’t make sense, or you see typos, or if you have further ideas, please email us on contact@activecitizenshiptoolkit.net
The reason operational security is done badly is it’s difficult and usually requires training. So If you’re in an army unit or criminal gang, you pretty quickly get taught the basics of keeping your mouth shut and secure communications, or else things will go badly wrong for you. On a personal level, “snitches get stitches.”
The consequences of poor operational security are that whatever thing you were planning can be preempted and prepared against and even if it goes off, it might not go off to the level that it was otherwise intended to do. And you will be left wondering, do you have a plant is someone among you a snitch, where it might simply be that someone sent a careless email that revealed too much The snitch jacket is being created to seed paranoia within a group.
The fix is for operational security. This is difficult, because of course, you need different levels of operational security for different kinds of event or project or action. I would say if you’re planning something that carries the chance of arrest and charge with something proper, then you really want to be steering clear of all email and phone conversations. Just assume that those are tapped. It’s like writing a postcard with the details of what you’re planning to do.
And having face-to-face meetings only, away from physical locations which are likely to be bugged – people’s houses, pubs that you frequent, etc. – And I know this sounds paranoid, but the history of the British state, the stuff that they’ve even admitted, tells you otherwise. And there are various ploys that you can use around writing stuff on Bits of paper, and burning the paper. All sorts of ways around. But you also have to ask yourself, if you’re doing something that arrestable that chargeable, that secret Well, if there’s more than two of you, good luck.
And couldn’t your time energy intelligence be spent on movement building instead, but this is where my prejudices as an old man who has seen many, many actions come and go come into play.
Development Resources
Assessment Resources
