Operations Security (OPSEC)

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Welcome to the first operations security (OPSEC) community on Lemmy!

This is a space dedicated to discussing, sharing, and learning about operational security practices. Whether you are a business owner, a cybersecurity expert, or just a regular person, you can always benefit from a little extra OPSEC in your life.


Community Guidelines

As we belong to Lemmy.zip all of their guidelines apply on top of ours.

  1. Stay on topic:

    • Keep discussions related to OPSEC only
    • If your post is about this community instead of OPSEC, prepend the prefix [META] to the title
    • For the sake of organization, please label your posts with prefixes such as [NEWS], [GUIDE], [QUESTION], [MEME], and so on. While this isn't standardized nor enforced, it helps keep everything nice and neat
  2. No illegal content:

    • Do not discuss, promote, or engage in illegal activities
    • While OPSEC can be used for criminal activity, we will not offer assistance to anyone planning to use it for such
  3. Quality Content:

    • Provide only good, factual and credible advice
    • Avoid spreading misinformation or unverified claims
    • Avoid low-effort posts, spam and sensationalism
    • Copypastas are allowed only as comments and if related to the post or parent comment.
    • Do not post AI-generated content; anyone can ask ChatGPT for assistance so do what you do best: be a human
    • Anyone giving blatantly false advice will be permanently banned
  4. No Self-Promotion:

    • Refrain from excessive self-promotion or advertising
    • Occasional sharing of personal projects is allowed if it benefits the community
  5. Threat Models:

    • Do not ask for advice without mentioning your threat model
    • Do not provide advice ridiculously outside the asker's threat model
    • Do not provide advice without knowing the asker's threat model (except when providing general advice to the community)

What is OPSEC?

Operations security (OPSEC) is a process that identifies critical information to determine whether friendly actions can be observed by enemy intelligence, determines if information obtained by adversaries could be interpreted to be useful to them, and then executes selected measures that eliminate or reduce adversary exploitation of friendly critical information.

In simpler terms, it is the process of finding vulnerabilities that an adversary could exploit and patching them, thereby reducing your attack surface.

OPSEC is NOT a synonym for cybersecurity. It can encompass it; however, it also revolves around physical security.


Useful resources

founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
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submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 

Guide to Determining Your Threat Model

Creating a solid threat model is an essential step in improving your operations security (OPSEC). It helps you identify potential threats, assess their impact, and prioritize your defenses. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you develop your own threat model.


1. Define Your Assets

First, list the things you want to protect. These might include:

  • Personal Information: Name, address, phone number, Social Security number, etc.
  • Financial Information: Bank account details, credit card numbers, financial records.
  • Digital Assets: Emails, social media accounts, documents, photos.
  • Physical Assets: Home, devices (computers, smartphones, etc.).

2. Identify Potential Threats

Next, think about who or what could pose a threat to your assets. Possible threats include:

  • Hackers: Individuals or groups looking to steal data or money.
  • Government Agencies: Law enforcement or intelligence agencies conducting surveillance.
  • Corporations: Companies collecting data for marketing or other purposes.
  • Insiders: Employees or contractors who might misuse their access.
  • Physical Threats: Burglars or thieves aiming to physically access your assets.

3. Assess Your Vulnerabilities

Identify weaknesses that these threats could exploit. Consider:

  • Technical Vulnerabilities: Unpatched software, weak passwords, outdated systems.
  • Behavioral Vulnerabilities: Poor security habits, lack of awareness.
  • Physical Vulnerabilities: Insecure physical locations, lack of physical security measures.

4. Determine the Potential Impact

Think about the consequences if your assets were compromised. Ask yourself:

  • How critical is the asset?
  • What would happen if it were accessed, stolen, or damaged?
  • Could compromising this asset lead to further vulnerabilities?

5. Prioritize Your Risks

Based on your assessment, rank your risks by considering:

  • Likelihood: How probable is it that a specific threat will exploit a particular vulnerability?
  • Impact: How severe would the consequences be if the threat succeeded?

6. Develop Mitigation Strategies

Create a plan to address the most critical risks. Strategies might include:

  • Technical Measures:

    • Use strong, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication.
    • Keep your software and systems up to date with the latest security patches.
    • Use encryption to protect sensitive data.
  • Behavioral Measures:

    • Be cautious with sharing personal information online.
    • Stay informed about common scams and phishing tactics.
    • Regularly review your privacy settings on social media and other platforms.
  • Physical Measures:

    • Secure your devices with locks and use physical security measures for your home or office.
    • Store sensitive documents in a safe place.
    • Be mindful of your surroundings and use privacy screens in public places.

7. Continuously Review and Update

Your threat model isn’t a one-time project. Review and update it regularly as your situation changes or new threats emerge.


Example Threat Model

  1. Assets:

    • Personal Information (e.g., SSN, address)
    • Financial Information (e.g., bank accounts)
    • Digital Assets (e.g., emails, social media)
    • Physical Assets (e.g., laptop, phone)
  2. Threats:

    • Hackers (e.g., phishing attacks)
    • Government Agencies (e.g., surveillance)
    • Corporations (e.g., data collection)
    • Insiders (e.g., disgruntled employees)
    • Physical Threats (e.g., theft)
  3. Vulnerabilities:

    • Weak passwords
    • Outdated software
    • Sharing too much information online
    • Insecure physical locations
  4. Potential Impact:

    • Identity theft
    • Financial loss
    • Loss of privacy
    • Compromise of additional accounts
  5. Prioritize Risks:

    • High Likelihood/High Impact: Weak passwords leading to account compromise.
    • Low Likelihood/High Impact: Government surveillance leading to loss of privacy.
  6. Mitigation Strategies:

    • Use a password manager and enable two-factor authentication.
    • Regularly update all software and devices.
    • Limit the amount of personal information shared online.
    • Use a home security system and lock devices.
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The Europol chief said that in a digital environment, the police needed to be able to decode these messages to fight crime. “You will not be able to enforce democracy without it,” she added.

"Anonymity is not a fundamental right,” she told the Financial Times.

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submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 

A leaked video from Chainalysis has shown they have delivered on the IRS's $1.25 million contract to trace Monero.

The good news is that their tracking heavily relies on you connecting to a compromised node.

The (debatably) bad news is that you need to run your own node to ensure privacy.

Review the linked video from Mental Outlaw (I love that guy) for more information.

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This post contains a canary message that's cryptographically signed by the official BusKill PGP release key

BusKill Canary #009
The BusKill project just published their Warrant Canary #009

For more information about BusKill canaries, see:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Status: All good
Release: 2025-01-14
Period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-06-01
Expiry: 2025-06-30

Statements
==========

The BusKill Team who have digitally signed this file [1]
state the following:

1. The date of issue of this canary is January 14, 2025.

2. The current BusKill Signing Key (2020.07) is

   E0AF FF57 DC00 FBE0 5635  8761 4AE2 1E19 36CE 786A

3. We positively confirm, to the best of our knowledge, that the 
   integrity of our systems are sound: all our infrastructure is in our 
   control, we have not been compromised or suffered a data breach, we 
   have not disclosed any private keys, we have not introduced any 
   backdoors, and we have not been forced to modify our system to allow 
   access or information leakage to a third party in any way.

4. We plan to publish the next of these canary statements before the
   Expiry date listed above. Special note should be taken if no new
   canary is published by that time or if the list of statements changes
   without plausible explanation.

Special announcements
=====================

None.

Disclaimers and notes
=====================

This canary scheme is not infallible. Although signing the 
declaration makes it very difficult for a third party to produce 
arbitrary declarations, it does not prevent them from using force or 
other means, like blackmail or compromising the signers' laptops, to 
coerce us to produce false declarations.

The news feeds quoted below (Proof of freshness) serves to 
demonstrate that this canary could not have been created prior to the 
date stated. It shows that a series of canaries was not created in 
advance.

This declaration is merely a best effort and is provided without any 
guarantee or warranty. It is not legally binding in any way to 
anybody. None of the signers should be ever held legally responsible 
for any of the statements made here.

Proof of freshness
==================

14 Jan 25 01:01:33 UTC

Source: DER SPIEGEL - International (https://www.spiegel.de/international/index.rss)
A Miracle? Pope Francis Helps Transsexual Prostitutes in Rome
Boost for the Right Wing: Why Did a German Newspaper Help Elon Musk Interfere in German Politics?

Source: NYT > World News (https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml)
What an Upended Mideast Means for Trump and U.S. Gulf Allies
Russia and Ukraine Battle Inside Kursk, With Waves of Tanks, Drones and North Koreans

Source: BBC News - World (https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/world/rss.xml)
Gaza ceasefire deal being finalised, Palestinian official tells BBC
Watch: Moment man is saved from burning LA home

Source: Bitcoin Blockchain (https://blockchain.info/q/latesthash)
0000000000000000000042db9e17f012dcd01f3425aa403e29c28c0dc1d16470

Footnotes
=========

[1] https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/security/pgpkeys.html

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To view all past canaries, see:

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

What is BusKill? (Explainer Video)
Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

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Even though Bluetooth is designed to be secure, vulnerabilities can sneak in. We saw an example of that with the Flipper Zero being able to spam Apple devices, and while that was relatively harmless, that doesn't mean the next vulnerability will be.

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Well, you guys won. Copypastas are now allowed as comments if they are related to the post or parent comment. However, they still can't be posts.

Rule 3 has been updated.

As much as I would not prefer this, we are a community and not a monarchy.

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One site I've been following for awhile is https://notifycyber.com/

...but I'd love some more. What are your must-haves?

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