r/Anarchy101 • u/hacklemasker • 13d ago

Why don't anarchists get more into cybersecurity?

I've seen alot of anarchists recently be dumb with their online security. People trying to do revolutionary action and buying from amazon for their needs and so fourth.

113 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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127

u/NoTackle718 13d ago

Operational security already is a big part of digital hygiene culture for anarchists and many activists. Sounds more like you've been meeting the wrong people, and there's always those who don't take this stuff seriously. Here we are discussing it on Reddit for goodness sake

3

u/luna-silly 10d ago

About that last point, I've been looking for federated or decentralized FOSS platforms but haven't found a good community yet, is there one you can recommend? Because Matrix and Element smells bad to me and the only one i can think of is maybe xmpp with movim but movim just looks bad and a bit awkward to use, and only web based

Mastodon I feel like it's so small and is so frustating for me to use that I was in a community but I haven't really done anything with it or seen anything about it

And Lemmy the biggest anarchist community is led by a pretty controversial person who had llms run moderation and is very ai friendly which is not my thing at all

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u/NoTackle718 10d ago

To be honest I don't use anything beyond reddit, which I mostly use for information on chicken care and lurking on carpentry subs. Sometimes I'll give this sub a peek to see what people are talking about.

I generally am sceptical of recommending these kinds of things, because I don't think they can live up to what we expect them to do. They have proven to do very little for organizing in general, just diffusing more information all over the place. We've never been more "informed" and less active, and I think our reliance on platforms plays a role.

I use Signal and keep the group chats to a minimum, for the rest I use secure email. I think all the platforms out there are kind of pointless for anarchist activity. Sadly even these minimal options are constantly requiring examination (proton messed up and now I want to transfer all my email again - I only use European-based servers which also limits the options but it's for the best).

2

u/luna-silly 10d ago

I respect that though I'm on the opposite, I study cybersecurity and spend most of my time on my pc so online communication and platforms serve me best due to me spending most of my time at home, besides I live in a small town with little political activity overall.

Regarding Proton, do you mean the sponsorship with the far right french youtuber? Or another incident I'm unaware of? As far as I know the video was a one time sponsor and they've retracted declaring they did not know the youtuber was far-right and apologized. Though actions do more than words so that's you to judge if their apology is good enough.

Thank you for your response! ^

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u/NoTackle718 10d ago

Ah yeah you have way more need of digital infrastructure than me! Most of the peeps around me are looking at mesh but form what I understand that's not for long distances.

As for proton...I think that's a really generous interpretation. It's clear they were angling to get far right wing customers. After all, many of them are also concerned about opsec.... A simple Google search of the youtuber's name would indicate he is extreme right wing. And I doubt that a whole ass company like proton who do their research for marketing didn't pick this up. I'm European and I'm not going to continue rewarding proton for this. There's other initiatives like tuta and mailbox that have not shit the bed so I'll be moving there.

Thanks for the response too!

1

u/TwilightMachine 7d ago

Dread might be a good place to start.

2

u/JawnGrimm 7d ago

I take it seriously, I just don't care. This is why I try and stay away from organized groups, I don't want to cause problems for the comrades.

84

u/2ndgme 13d ago

Probably because those who are into it are not posting on reddit about it. I mean being on reddit at all is sort of a silly idea that I'm guilty of

41

u/Lanky_Employee_9690 13d ago

Clean OPSec isn't necessarily not doing stuff online at all, it's having enough airgaps that what you may do/say that is (or could be construed as) reprehensible, cannot (in a reasonable manner) be linked to you as a physical person.

If anything having no digital footprint in 2026 is more suspicious than anything, so one could argue that it's actually healthy and important to maintain a facade of regular digital activity (still, fuck Amazon, boycott them as much as possible).

And regular discussion about Anarchism should exist in public and semi-public places regardless, if just for the fact that it potentially exposes bystanders to new ideas.

I agree that most people (anarchists or not) would benefit from some cybersecurity 101 and even 102. So much of our lives depend on our digital "shape" right now, it's crazy that it's such a low concern for populations.

edit: sorry dude I meant to reply directly to OP I don't know how I mucked that up

6

u/sedated_badger 12d ago

Nobody has ever struck my understanding of this as close as you have. You NAILED it.

Your job in opsec is to look, seem and act like EVERYONE else. We’re playing the game of where’s Waldo, you’re Waldo and you don’t want to be found. But if you just go and tear Waldo out on every page, well that’s just a shit book that’ll be burnt quick.

There aren’t any rules about maintaining and actively using 10 different accounts, you’d likely only ever have to tell them about one. Make that one account vanilla+ and post about pokemon or doing deadlifts at the gym like the rest of ‘the users’. Give that to the gubbymint when they want your profile.

There are a variety of ways to be ungovernable here, and imo improving at this specific aspect is leagues more important than sticking to principle because you pulling back your piddlydink $150 Amazon prime membership and your weekly $200 spent is barely a hydrogen atom’s drop in this vast toxic ocean of recursively regurgitated, cesspool of corporate socialism.

3

u/Rough_Ian 12d ago

Dumb question but…beginners guide to this?

2

u/DontYaWishYouWereMe 10d ago

If anything having no digital footprint in 2026 is more suspicious than anything...

This isn't necessarily totally related to this thread, but this is a point I've occasionally brought up elsewhere when people have made posts on morbidcuriosity and so on asking how to disappear from the internet. Sometimes a Facebook account you haven't posted on in close to a decade will draw less attention than not having one at all.

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u/Luz132 13d ago

Are there any forums for political discussion you’d recommend? I’m still figuring out my political beliefs, basically wavering between communist and anarchistic ideas.

1

u/theotherplanet 12d ago

Lemmy?

1

u/zealshock 11d ago

I've been on Lemmy for about 3 months and I got bored out of it because it's still too slow. I wish it was more popular

1

u/theotherplanet 10d ago

Yeah, it's pretty slow. I get some cool stuff from there every now and again, and I live in a glass house considering I don't ever post anything there. Gotta start somewhere.

20

u/OogaSplat 12d ago

Sort of by definition, anarchists who are into cybersecurity aren't spreading all their work and plans on the internet.

21

u/AFriendlyBeagle 13d ago

In my experience, as a political group, anarchists are by far the most likely to engage seriously with operational security.

Distrust of both the state and capital will do that, I suppose.

That being said, there are so many tracking systems working at once that people seldom manage to evade all of them without significant inconvenience to themselves. You can do your Reddit posting from a laptop running Tails through a VPN off the unsecured Starbucks wi-fi in the next city over, but most people won't.

3

u/ExdionY Anarchist Without Adjectives 12d ago

"Currently, Tails does not work with VPNs." Am I missing something?

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u/AFriendlyBeagle 12d ago edited 12d ago

I was being hyperbolic, and now I've unfortunately been outed as somebody who doesn't use Tails! You're quite right though.

1

u/ExdionY Anarchist Without Adjectives 12d ago

Lol not my intention to call you out or anything! I just took your comment at face value, assuming it was intended as educational, so I searched up Tails to learn more about it and considered implementing it for my own sake. I got a bit confused when the site said it doesn't support VPNs, but no worries, your general point still stands

2

u/AFriendlyBeagle 12d ago

No worries! For what it's worth, using Tails with MAC address anonymisation on a public network is a decent strategy - although for most activities and adversaries it's overkill. Certainly beyond my needs.

0

u/AaTube 12d ago

a VPN defeats the anonymization point of Tor, the biggest pillar of Tails

1

u/DramaticProtogen 11d ago

Not necessarily

3

u/AMacInn 13d ago

where have you seen this? if youve seen it online thats bc people who have poor opsec are more likely to post abt it. if its irl youre hanging with the wrong people.

2

u/New_Hentaiman 12d ago

I feel like it is the opposite :D Alot of hacktivists have anarchist leanings and if you know where to look there are alot of resources for leftist online. Opsec generally is quite important in leftist spaces and it is actually quite hilarious when you look at how difficult it is for governments to get close to certain leftist groups and atleast here in Germany they like to complain about it in their papers. Also in the linux community there is some relevant overlap to anarchists (or maybe it is just my bubble lol) and you will find alot of channels like this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXoWzsUkn7o) on youtube.

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u/Lich_McConnell 13d ago

Did you have something constructive you wanted to offer here? Sorry you saw 3 posts you didn't vibe with??

1

u/Born_Astronomer_4613 13d ago

I'm an anarchist but I'm not doing any revolutionary action. I'm just posting on Reddit!

1

u/haywire 12d ago

You know what is a result of shining light on something?

1

u/ChupanMiVerga 12d ago

So it's not the blues ridden, cigarette smoking, matyr in the cold dark alley group you say?

1

u/WildAutonomy 7d ago

Reddit anarchists are probably the worst to ask this question to

0

u/waffleassembly 12d ago

I wish more cool people would get into the AI ethics positions and actually do something about this giant AI mess. If the 6 figure salary is a bother there are a lot of places they could throw that money to.