Essays on Security Culture
/via Steven Best, Ph.D, please spread and reblog.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Informers and Infiltrators
Dealing With Disruptive Behavior
“DO NOT BRAG ABOUT RIOTING OR OTHER ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, ESPECIALLY NOT ON THE INTERNET OR IN TEXTS! The police will be scouring Facebook and other social media looking for such boasts. If they arrest you, they will confiscate your phone and use information they find in text messages (including ones you think are deleted) as evidence against you. Resist the urge to brag to friends about tonight. This is a double-edged sword: the seductive appeal of insurrection should be communicated and spread, but be careful. For example, it may be okay to talk about being at an event or supporting what happened there, but it is a terrible mistake to claim to have thrown a bottle or to know who did. ”
—Cautionary Note to May Day Protesters, Rioters, and Combatants: Stay Safe
Security Culture and Some Basic Info.
From what I’ve been reading lately about Indigenous folks being very surprised and offended upon the realization that they are being surveilled, it seems like a lot of us need to be reading and distributing this kind of information: Security Culture, a Handbook for Activists.
If you’re interested (and you should be) about Security Culture, then you should check out this information about state repression and community organizing (linked above). The G8/G20 was a wake up call for a lot of us and so a lot more of this information came out after June 2010. It doesn’t have to be scary and intimidating, but can start with basic things like encrypted email and being aware of the spaces that you use for meetings.
You’d be surprised how much you don’t know about Security Culture. Here’s another resource that might be worth checking out if you’re interested: The War at Home.
Majority Of File-Sharers Are Heavily Monitored
washington.cbslocal.comLONDON (CBSDC)- A recent study found that those who participate in illegal file-sharing are not flying under the radar, but rather are closely monitored within hours of engaging in suspect activity.
The study, conducted at Birmingham University in the United Kingdom, used software created by computer scientists that emulated the file-sharing program BitTorrent and logged all interactions and connections made to it, the Korea IT Times reported.
Over the course of the three-year study, researchers reportedly saw monitoring firms tracking activity within three hours of a given download.
According to the tech website, those conducting the study were “surprised” at the diligent way in which such activity was monitored, and noted in their findings that there was no difference between frequent users and occasional downloaders.
“You don’t have to be a mass downloader. Someone who downloads a single movie will be logged as well,” research leader Dr. Tom Chothia was quoted as saying. “If the content was in the top 100 it was monitored within hours – someone will notice and it will be recorded.”
One distinction was allegedly made by monitoring firms, however – less popular content was not checked on nearly as frequently as more prominent or desirable items.
At least 10 different monitoring establishments reportedly logged downloaded content, the Korea IT Times learned.
The purpose of overseeing such activity was not immediately apparent to researchers, however.
“Many firms are simply sitting on thedata,” Chothia noted. “Such monitoring is easy to do and the data is out there so they think they may as well collect it as it may be valuable in future.”
Wow, this post was circulating and I think it gives some mediocre tips and some patently bad advice and I typed up this whole thing and then I remembered probably I don’t want to publish that kind of information, lolol.
SECURITY CULTURE - Black Bloc Tip
Investigators attempt to match shoes and backpacks to identities when investigating a black bloc. This makes sense considering everything else is hidden.
Learn from the Chilean students and their methods to stay extra safe.
Cover up your shoes by rolling black tube socks over them. When you unbloc just leave the tube socks behind. Help keep yr identity (and footprints) safe and secure.
Security Culture = Safe Sex
Resnick: Okay, so one thing I’ve heard more than once at meetings when security culture comes up is that … well, there’s a sense that too much precaution grows into (or comes out of) paranoia, and paranoia breeds mistrust—and all of it can be paralyzing and lead to a kind of inertia. How would you respond to something like that?
Appelbaum: The people who that say that—if they’re not cops, they’re feeling unempowered. The first response people have is, whatever, I’m not important. And the second is, they’re not watching me, and even if they were, there’s nothing they could find because I’m not doing anything illegal. But the thing is, taking precautions with your communications is like safe sex in that you have a responsibility to other people to be safe—your transgressions can fuck other people over. The reality is that when you find out it will be too late. It’s not about doing a perfect job, it’s about recognizing you have a responsibility to do that job at all, and doing the best job you can manage, without it breaking down your ability to communicate, without it ruining your day, and understanding that sometimes it’s not safe to undertake an action, even if other times you would. That’s the education component.
Article: Against the Logic of Submission by Wolfi Landstreicher
Security Culture and Expansive Living
“Life today is far too small. Forced into roles and relationships that reproduce the current social order, it focuses on the petty, on that which can be measured, priced, bought and sold […] Everyday, hidden mechanisms of repression operate to prevent revolt, to guarantee the submission that maintains the social order. The necessities of survival, the underlying awareness of always being watched, the barrage of prohibitions that meet the eyes on signs or in the person of a cop, the very structure of the social environments in which we move, these are enough to keep most people in line, eyes to the ground, minds empty of all except the petty worries of the day.”
click here for full article
On Good Security Culture
The bare truth is that we live in a surveillance state that is unparalleled. Many people are legitimately worried or afraid. But this fear can become paranoia and paralysis. As a result, some will not get involved in radical activism. Others will stay involved, but their paranoia will create a stifling atmosphere and drive people away. Result? Our movements die. This outcome works perfectly for those in power. Without wanting to, our fear and paranoia can end up doing the work of the state that wants to shut our movements down.
But Security Culture – a simple set of rules anyone can follow – reduces paranoia and fear, and makes us safer so that we can do our work effectively.
