_ _ _/B\_ _/W\_ (* *) Phrack #64 file 7 (* *) | - | | - | | | The Revolution will be on YouTube | | | | | | | | By Gladio | | | | | | | | Gladio@phrack.org | | (____________________________________________________) Forget everything you know about revolutions. It's all wrong. Fighting a conventional war in an industrialized nation is suicide. Even if you could field a military force capable of defeating the government forces, the wreckage wouldn't be worth having. Think about mortar shells landing in chemical plants. Massive toxic waste spills. Poisonous clouds drifting with the winds. Fighting a war in your own backyard is just plain stupid. Notice how the super-powers fight each other with proxy wars in other countries. Sure it might be fun to form a militia and go play army with your friends in Idaho. Got some full-auto assault rifles? Maybe even mortars, heavy machine guns and some anti-aircraft guns? Think they can take out an AC-130 lobbing artillery shells from 12 miles away? A flight of A-10s spitting depleted uranium shells the size of your fist at a rate that makes the cannon sound like a redlined dirt bike? A shooting war with a modern government is a shortcut to obliteration. Most coups are accomplished (or thwarted) by skillful manipulation of information. There have been a number of countries where tyrants (and legitimate leaders) have been overthrown by very small groups using mass communications effectively. The typical method involves blocking all (or most) information sources controlled by the government, and supplying an alternative that delivers your message. Usually, you just announce the change in government, tell everyone they are safe and impose a curfew for a short time to consolidate your control. Announce that the country, the police and the military are under your control, and keep repeating it. Saturate the airwaves with your message, while preventing any contradictory messages from propagation. Virtually all broadcast media use the telephone network to deliver content from their studios to their transmitters. Networks use satellites and pstn to distribute content to local stations, which then use pstn to deliver it to the transmitter site. Hijacking these phone connections accomplishes both goals, of denying the 'official' media access, and putting your own message out. In cases where you can't hijack the transmitters, dropping the pstn will be effective. Police and military also use pstn to connect dispatch centers with transmitter towers. Recently, many have installed wireless (microwave) fallback systems. Physically shutting down the pstn just prior to your broadcasts may be very effective. This is most easily accomplished by physical damage to the telco facilities, but there are also non-physical technical means to do this on a broad scale. Spelling them out here would only result in the holes being closed, but if you have people with the skill set to do this, it is preferable to physical means because you will have the advantage of utilizing these communications resources as your plan progresses. Leveraging the Internet Most of the FUD produced about insurgence and the internet is focused on "taking down" the internet. That's probably not the most effective use of technical assets. An insurgency would benefit more from utilizing the net. One use is mass communications. Get your message out to the masses and recruit new members. Another use is for communications within your group. This is where things get sticky. Most governments have the ability to monitor and intercept their citizen's internet traffic. The governments most deserving of being overthrown are probably also the most effective at electronic surveillance. The gov will also infiltrate your group, so forums aren't going to be the best means of communicating strategies and tactics. Forums can be useful for broad discussions, such as mission statements, goals and recruiting. Be wary of traffic analysis and sniffing. TOR can be useful, particularly if your server is accessible only on TOR network. Encryption is your best friend, but can also be your worst enemy. Keep in mind that encryption only buys you time. A good, solid cipher will not likely be read in real time by your opponent, but will eventually be cracked. The important factor here is that it not be cracked until it's too late to be useful. A one time pad (OTP) is the best way to go. Generate random data and write it to 2, and only 2, DVDs. Physically transport the DVDs to each communications endpoint. Never let them out of your direct control. Do not mail them. Do not send keys over ssh or ssl. Physically hand the DVD to your counterpart on the other end. Never re-use a portion of the key. Below is a good way to utilize your OTP: Generate a good OTP (K), come up with a suspicious alternate message (M), and knowing your secret text (P), you calculate (where "+" = mod 26 addition): K' = M + K K'' = P + K C = K' + P Lock up K'' in a safety deposit box, and hide k' in some other off site, secure location. Keep C around with big "beware of Crypto systems" signs. When the rubber hose is broken out, take at least 2 good lickings, and then give up the key to the safety deposit box. They get K'', and calculate K'' + C = M thus giving them the bogus message, and protecting your real text. Operational Security The classic "cellular" configuration is the most secure against infiltration and compromise. A typical cell should have no more than 5-10 members. One leader, 2 members who each know how to contact one member of an 'upstream' cell, and 2 members who each know how to contact one member of a downstream cell. Nobody, including the leader, should know how to contact more than one person outside of their own cell. Never use your real name, and never use your organizational alias in any other context. Electronic communications between members should be kept to a minimum. When it is necessary, it should only be conducted via the OTP cipher. Preferably, these communications should consist of not much more than arranging a physical meeting. Meet at a pre-arranged place, and then go to another, un-announced place where surveillance is difficult, to discuss operational matters. Do not carry a phone. Even a phone which is switched off can be tracked, and most can be used to eavesdrop on discussions even when powered down. Removing the battery is only marginally safer, because tracking/listening gear can be built into the battery pack. If you find yourself stuck with a phone during a meeting, remove the battery and place both the phone and battery in a metal box and remove it from the immediate area of conversation. It never hurts to generate some bogus traffic. Gibberish, random data, innocuous stories etc., all serve to generate noise in which to better hide your real communications. Steganography can be useful when combined with solid crypto. Encrypt and stego small messages into something like a full length movie avi, and distribute it to many people via a torrent. Only your intended recipient will have the key to decrypt the stegged message. Be sure to stego some purely random noise into other movies, and torrent them as well. Hopefully you'll find this document useful as a starting point for further discussion and refinement. It's not meant to be definitive, and is surely not comprehensive. Feel free to copy, add, edit or change as you see fit. Please do add more relative to your area(s) of expertise.