OPSEC[edit]

Operational Security is not paranoia — it's pattern awareness.

This page serves as the main hub for OPSEC practices and philosophies across both physical and digital environments. Whether you're an activist, sysadmin, whistleblower, or just someone who values sovereignty in the modern surveillance state — this is your jump-off point.

Historical Evolution of OPSEC[edit]

Operational Security (OPSEC) predates language. Tribes concealed hunting routes. Cities obscured troop movements. Empires guarded diplomatic communiqués under threat of death. Wherever adversaries existed, there was incentive to conceal, misdirect, and deny information. The principle was elemental: survival demands the protection of critical knowledge.

Classical Foundations[edit]

Sun Tzu codified the earliest formal OPSEC doctrines in The Art of War, emphasizing secrecy, unpredictability, and the weaponization of misinformation. Roman military culture institutionalized operational secrecy; generals often executed soldiers who spoke openly about campaigns. Medieval states employed spies, secret couriers, and cipher systems to protect strategic plans. OPSEC evolved in step with warfare itself.

Industrial and Total War[edit]

The two World Wars industrialized intelligence gathering and operational secrecy. During World War II, radio discipline, codebreaking countermeasures, need-to-know compartmentalization, and psychological operations formed a layered defense against enemy intelligence efforts. The British Double Cross system and Operation Bodyguard—designed to mislead Germany about the D-Day landings—demonstrated the power of large-scale, systematic deception combined with strict internal secrecy. Leakage was not tolerated. Silence was survival.

The "Purple Dragon" Project and Formalization[edit]

During the Vietnam War, the United States military discovered that operational failures often stemmed not from superior enemy action, but from preventable information leakage. In 1966, a classified effort known as Purple Dragon began. Its objective: identify vulnerabilities created by friendly forces themselves—operational habits, lax communication standards, environmental giveaways—and close them systematically.

Purple Dragon concluded that traditional security methods (e.g., classified markings, encryption) were insufficient. Information that could be inferred from unclassified patterns—movement timings, logistics chains, personnel habits—could be just as deadly. The core finding hardened the OPSEC doctrine: assume adversaries are always listening, watching, probing. Assume that anything detectable will be detected. Assume that detection will be weaponized against you.

The Department of Defense institutionalized these findings by creating formal OPSEC programs, mandatory training, and red-team exercises. Civilian industries—especially aerospace and high technology sectors—adopted similar practices under the threat of espionage.

Collapse of Civilian OPSEC: The Internet Age[edit]

The mass adoption of the internet annihilated civilian OPSEC almost overnight. Previously, the average citizen enjoyed plausible obscurity. Post-internet, voluntary self-exposure became the norm, not the exception. Social media platforms incentivized the destruction of personal compartmentalization: professional, personal, familial, operational, and social personas were collapsed into a single, trackable identity.

This collapse is not accidental. Modern platforms are engineered for maximum data extraction and aggregation. Every interaction—likes, comments, scroll speed, typing cadence—is collected, stored, profiled, and weaponized by corporations, governments, criminal actors, and hostile intelligence services. Civilian users are now standing armies of unprotected, untrained intelligence assets.

Projects and Guides[edit]

Cord-cutters – How to minimize risk and prevent doxxing on Discord through identity discipline and behavioral awareness.
Digital Discipline – Anonymity best practices using ProtonMail, Mullvad VPN, and a secure password manager.
Ghost VM Ops – Best practices for creating, managing, and isolating virtual machines for security and privacy.
Sandbox Rituals – A guide to using Windows Sandbox for safely executing untrusted programs in a disposable environment.
Titus Cleanse – How to use Chris Titus’s Windows utility to debloat and secure your system with minimal configuration.
WPD Blackout – Detailed usage of WPD.app to disable Windows telemetry, background data collection, and unwanted services.
Pyongyang Night – A comprehensive guide to disabling Intel ME and AMD PSP for hardware-level OPSEC.
Fuck The Feds – Proton's manifesto

Useful Tools[edit]

Recommended[edit]

Mullvad VPN – No-logs, privacy-first VPN with anonymous payment options and strong security posture.
Mullvad Check – Test for DNS leaks, WebRTC leaks, and verify VPN IP address.
ProtonMail & ProtonVPN – Encrypted email and VPN services from a privacy-first Swiss provider.
Tuta Mail – Encrypted, privacy-respecting email service based in Germany with open-source clients.
Bitwarden – Secure, open-source password manager with cross-device syncing.
KeePassXC – A free, open-source password manager for secure local storage and offline access.

Other Tools[edit]

Privnote – Send self-destructing, encrypted notes that don’t require signup.
System Informer – Advanced system monitor and process viewer (formerly Process Hacker).
VeraCrypt – Open-source disk encryption tool for securing your files and partitions.
Tor Browser – Defend against tracking and surveillance while browsing the web.
Tails OS – A live OS that preserves privacy and leaves no trace.
Kismet – Wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system.
SimpleWall – Lightweight firewall control for Windows to block outbound data.
CryptPad – End-to-end encrypted collaborative documents and spreadsheets.
Whonix – Anonymity-focused Linux distribution built to route all traffic through Tor.

OPSEC

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