Infosec 101 for Activists
infosecforactivists.org
Infosec 101 for Activists
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Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#2More resources on this topic:
Activist or Protester? by EFF's Surveillance Self Defense https://ssd.eff.org/playlist/activist-or-protester
The Protester's Guide to Smartphone Security by Privacy Guides https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/01/23/activists-...
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#3A bit of a tangent, but modern protests are subject to hijacking from agents provocateur and general shit stirrers -- it's been quite effective in delegitimizing public protests. It would be nice to find ways to counter that.
Case in point: how BLM protests were turned into riots by antagonistic forces: https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-helped-ignite-george-floyd-rio...
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#4National Lawyers Guild Know Your Rights reminder: Shut the f** up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWEpW6KOZDs
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#5That they recommend a VPN and not Tor in their first table immediately makes me suspicious.
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#6National Lawyers Guild Know Your Rights reminder: Shut the f** up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWEpW6KOZDs https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/stopped-by-police
That video, unfortunately, is out of date. The USSC recently decided that if you are merely silent that means you waive your right to remain silent.
I wish I were making that up. You now have to repeatedly state it.
The USSC has been off the rails for at least ten years.
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#7This is ridiculous, just don't use a network of any kind or you'll be tracked by someone somewhere. Simple as that. Misleading people into thinking they can use these tools and be safe is dangerous. I suppose the only way to be safe is to assume you're being tracked somehow and use burners or throw aways that don't matter.
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#8That they recommend a VPN and not Tor in their first table immediately makes me suspicious. https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
Why? I've personally seen more news articles about Tor users getting de-anonymized than I have VPN users. Purely anecdotal, I know, but the point being Tor is obviously not foolproof, so I am curious why recommending one over the other is apparently enough for you to call the entire article into question.
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#9Is DuckDuckGo really secure? It's just Bing re-skinned. Makes me question the rest of the list.
Re: Infosec 101 for Activists
#10That they recommend a VPN and not Tor in their first table immediately makes me suspicious. https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
Why? I've personally seen more news articles about Tor users getting de-anonymized than I have VPN users. Purely anecdotal, I know, but the point being Tor is obviously not foolproof, so I am curious why recommending one over the other is apparently enough for you to call the entire article into question.
> Why?
Because if I was running SIGINT at the NSA and collaborating with the FBI to arrest activists, the very first thing I would do is start up a bunch of VPN providers that bill themselves as "private" and then log everything aggressively.
The second thing I would do is have useful idiots (i.e., influencers) spread vague anecdotes about Tor users being "de-anonymized" when VPN users are never "anonymized" to begin with. I would make sure these anecdotes never clarify whether it's "Tor users accessing Hidden Services and getting popped by a Firefox exploit" or "network attack that enables traffic correlation" so everyone fills in the blanks and assumes Tor is dangerous, when it isn't, thereby pushing activists to my VPN services.
After all. There is no real enforcement mechanism if a "private" VPN lies.
https://www.theregister.com/2011/09/26/hidemyass_lulzsec_con...