Security Culture – Dark Nights

The Guide to Peer-to-Peer, Encryption, and Tor: New Communication Infrastructure for Anarchists

Posted on 2023/03/26 by darknights

An exhaustive anarchist overview and guide to various apps and tech that utilize peer-to-peer and encryption.

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Secure encryption chat apps are essential infrastructure for anarchists, so they should be closely scrutinized. Signal is the dominant secure encryption tool used by anarchists today. Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, the fundamental architecture and development goals of Signal have potential security implications for anarchists. Signal is a centralized communication service, and centralization results in potential security implications, especially when contextualized within the current threat landscape. Alternative secure chat apps like Briar and Cwtch are Peer-to-peer communication tools that, in addition to being Encrypted like Signal, route all traffic through Tor (PET). This approach to secure communication offers great advantages for security, anonymity and privacy over more common services like Signal, but with caveats. However, anarchists should seriously consider trying and using Briar and/or Cwtch, in the interest of developing more resilient and more secure communication infrastructure.

Despite all that, the best way to communicate anything securely is still face-to-face.

Shhh…

This is a discussion about digital tools for communicating securely and privately. To begin, it must be stressed that a face-to-face meeting, out of sight of cameras and out of earshot from other people and devices, is the most secure way to communicate. Anarchists were going for walks to chat long before encrypted texting existed, and they should still do so now, whenever possible.

That being said, it’s undeniable that secure digital communication tools are now part of our anarchist infrastructure. Perhaps many of us rely on them more than we should, but there is an extent to which they have become unavoidable for coordinating, collaborating, and staying connected. Given that these tools are essential infrastructure for us, it’s crucial that we constantly scrutinize and re-evaluate their security and effectiveness at protecting our communications from our adversaries.

In the last decade or two, anarchists have been early adopters of these secure communication tools and techniques, and have played a role in normalizing and spreading their use within our own communities, as well as among others engaged in resistance and struggle. The following text is intended to present anarchists with newer tools for secure encrypted communication, and make the case that we should adopt them in order to bolster the resilience and autonomy of our infrastructure. We can learn the advantages of these new apps – how they can help dodge surveillance and repression – and subsequently employ them effectively in our movements and help spread their use more broadly. Continue reading “The Guide to Peer-to-Peer, Encryption, and Tor: New Communication Infrastructure for Anarchists” →

Strategies for Countering Police Access to DNA Data

Posted on 2023/03/23 - 2023/03/23 by darknights

Chapter 10: OPSEC for Informational Self-Determination

Source: Counter-Surveillance Resource Center

Via: Act for freedom now!

Languages: German

Download: PDF (read, A4 booklet, letter booklet) • TEXT

OPSEC is military and intelligence jargon for “operational security” and refers to techniques designed to prevent their people being caught during or after an “operation”.

The fact that we have to talk about such things at all when it comes to issues like exercising the fundamental right to freedom of assembly or small acts of civil disobedience is a clear indication of how far the state’s mania for security and collection has already developed. It is generally better to invest resources on pushing back the security apparatus than in a technical arms race with state agencies.

Nevertheless, there is of course nothing wrong with trying to avoid giving unnecessary material to state authorities and exercising the right to informational self-determination. To prevent or at least significantly limit leaving casual traces, it is necessary to wear new gloves, a face mask, a hair net or, even better, closed headgear (e.g. a swimming cap) and washed clothes with long sleeves and pant legs^[1]. Continue reading “Strategies for Countering Police Access to DNA Data” →

Spain: “Bark, then ride” About the discovery of a new police infiltrator.

Posted on 2023/02/14 by darknights

In these days of commotion at the discovery of the new police infiltrator, from security culture, by allusions also, we want to launch some reflections.

Blame leads nowhere

First of all, we would like to send a warm greeting to the people who have had to deal closely with this situation. We know what it means to give our trust, time, support, affection and body to our loved ones and what it means when we are betrayed and instrumentalized. Especially if it is a case like this one, in which some of our colleagues have also been involved in more intimate relationships with this subject.

But it is useless to whip ourselves now that we already know it, when suddenly comments and ideas appear that, in the past, come out quickly, but are not very visible when the infiltration is taking place. We have to bear in mind that these tasks are part of police and state tactics with many years of experience that, in most cases, will surpass us. Either because of the means used, because of the intentions that lead the State to infiltrate someone, because we are a visible target, because they are trained for it and because we are human and we cannot always detect it easily. We count on the fact that this is something recurrent and permanent, that there have been, will be and will be more infiltrations that we have and that, until the hare jumps (in the cases in which it happens), it is complicated to find out. That is what it is all about and that is what they work hard at, however, they also have failures and letdowns of guard that allow us to pull the thread of some detail that, as unnoticed as it may seem to us, can lead to discover someone. What can be done now is to learn from the mistakes made, analyze the path of this person with us and see how it can affect us in the future. And at the same time, take into consideration the investigative work that has been done, the sensitivity in detecting suspicious behavior and the rapid dissemination of information to avoid further damage. Without forgetting the set of repressive tools that the state has at its disposal, infiltration being just one more and certainly less common compared to others.

Let’s take responsibility, let’s acquire good practices

But despite the fact that all this seeks to whip, the feeling of guilt and mistrust, it is true that it is in our hands to continue implementing a culture of security that safeguards our spaces of struggle and the people who are part of it. This goes through many axes, some of which have been exposed in these cycles of talks that were made from this project, with special emphasis on police work and forms of repression and highlighting the figure of infiltrators and whistleblowers as a tactic used. Continue reading “Spain: “Bark, then ride” About the discovery of a new police infiltrator.” →