Thursday, April 3, 2025

Stay Hidden, Stay Alive: An Intro to OPSEC

By Cade Shadowlight

Imagine a world where your nosy neighbor snitches about your stockpile, or a hacker drains your crypto wallet because you overshared online. That’s where Operational Security (OPSEC) comes in—a survival skill ripped from military playbooks, retooled for regular folks like us. Think of OPSEC as your personal cloaking device—keeping your life off the radar of anyone who doesn’t belong in it.

This isn’t about dodging spies—yet. It’s about keeping your life private from everyday threats now, and later when the grid goes dark. Here’s how to start.

Step 1: Identify Critical Information 

What information do we need to protect? What do we want to keep private? What could be used against us in some way?

Potential answers include:
  • financial information
  • social security numbers
  • digital wallet keys
  • passwords and PINs
  • medical information
  • political affiliation
  • religious affiliation
  • membership in certain organizations
  • presence of valuables in the home (cash, gold, silver, antiques, guns, tools, electronics)
  • purchases of large amounts of food or other supplies
  • survival plans

Step 2: Identify Potential Threats 

Who really needs to know what information? Once you figure that out, realize that everyone else represents a potential threat to abuse or misuse the information, or even just unwittingly reveal it to those who might.   

Every street’s got a Karen on the HOA board, eyeing your bug-out gear and tallying your Amazon drops. Data brokers are constantly vacuuming up your online and IRL habits to sell to corporations. Local officials are weaponizing zoning laws against backyard chickens or even backyard gardens. Schools are questioning students about their parent's political views and other private information. Doctors are encouraged to ask about all sorts of non-medical information, including guns in the home and the mental health of family members. Then there’s the usual suspects—thieves, scammers, and that creep next door. 



Step 3: Identify Vulnerabilities

How do potential threats get our critical information?  The answer is we give it to them, most often without realizing it. 

Examples of how we give away our critical information:

  • Over-sharing on social media is a major risk
  • Your Discord chats, Venmo transactions, or Ring doorbell footage can all spill your secrets.
  • Public conversations can be overheard by anyone nearby.
  • Private conversations can be revealed, accidentally or on-purpose, by anyone involved.
  • Your trash reveals your purchases, as well as financial and medical information.
  • Nearby neighbors can physically see much of our activities and preparations. 
  • Children, especially young children, tell EVERYTHING to their friends, schoolmates, teachers, neighbors, and other parents (even if you've told them not to).
  • Smart phones log all calls and texts. Even in airplane mode, phones can be tracked with the right gear—think Stingrays or rogue cell towers.
  • Affinity cards, credit/debit cards, even modern library cards log all activity, which is then available to the company, government officials with, and sometimes, without, warrants, and even hackers.

Step 4: Assess the Risks

What critical information is most important to protect? What threats are the most active? What vulnerabilities are the most likely to reveal private details?  


Some types of information are more critical than other types—meaning it can more easily or effectively be used against you. Your crypto keys are more critical than your Costco bulk rice purchase—hackers can ruin you faster than a gossip can snitch. Focus on locking down the big stuff first. Most of the time and effort of OPSEC should be aimed at protecting the most important information against the most realistic threats. It’s your call—what’s worth guarding with your life?


Step 5: Apply Countermeasures

This is probably why you came to this article, so let's go straight to some action steps.

Family/Tribe: Make sure everyone is on-board with what information is critical to protect, and why it is important to do so. Drill your crew like it’s a heist movie—code words for sensitive topics, and a ‘need-to-know’ vibe even at home.

Public Conversations:  Avoid public conversations or comments about critical information. This includes phone conversations in public. Remember, if you are in public anyone can eavesdrop—keep it zipped.

Social Media: Going dark is unrealistic, so go fake instead—use burner accounts with no ties to your real life, as I described in Ghosting Big Tech: The Burner Rebellion (article link). Even then, avoid over-sharing. Don't tag other people in pictures, and ask that they don't tag you.

Young Children: Be careful about what information you share with and around your childrenthey do have ears). Talk to them often about not to talk about outside the family. Make it a game: ‘Family secrets stay in the fort. Teach them to respond to questions, even from teachers, about the family's finances, religion, or politics by responding "I don't know," and "You'll have to ask Mommy or Daddy about that." 

Tech Hygiene: Ditch G-mail for ProtonMail or Tutanota. Wipe metadata from pics before posting. Dodge public WiFi. Realize that if you are emitting electronically, your use is being monitored, logged and stored. Keep your operating system and apps up-to-date. Used a privacy-enhanced browsers and search engines like Brave, Duck-Duck-Go, or StartPage. 

Physical OPSEC: Neighbors have eyes—privacy fences and heavy curtains help. Shred receipts, bills, and other documents after they are no longer needed. Break down boxes inside-out before trashing them. 

This article only scratches the surface. Future articles will expand on the topic. Stay connected by subscribing to the email list by clicking here

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Monday, March 31, 2025

Ghosting Big Tech: The Burner Rebellion

By Cade Shadowlight

Big Tech and the Power Elite want your life on a leash. Ghost them—without tossing your phone. Gen Z’s finstas (fake Instagram) are your blueprint. They duck the system with secret profiles—time for us older folks to catch up. This isn’t just privacy—it’s a jab at the Technocracy’s grip. They thrive on tracking you—your garden, your money, your rants. You don’t need to go Amish to escape. Burner accounts fight back. Here’s how to pull it off.

What’s a Burner Account?

It’s a second, secret social media profile—Instagram, TikTok, X—locked down for your real crew, not the masses. Think finsta or priv X accounts—unpolished, hidden, just for friends.

Gen Z uses them to vent or vibe without unwanted eyes. For you, it’s a shield—keeps your prepper plans, family chats, or landlord gripes off the radar. HOAs won’t care about your outlaw garden if they don’t see it. Celebs do it too—one face for fans, another for the inner circle. This is one time you should follow their example.

Why Gen X and Boomers Need This

Boomers and older Gen X grew up with rotary phones and rabbit ears, not TikTok and smart cities. But 2025’s a surveillance jungle—cameras snapping, drones buzzing, algos sniffing your trash. In some cities, they’re chipping recycling bins to track your sorting skills.

Anonymity’s dying—Big Tech and the feds want your phone, your name, your soul. The Power Elite want you tagged—every move logged for their control grid. Burners are your last stand—hide now, or explain your chickens to a drone later. It’s like passing notes in class—low-tech stealth in a high-tech cage.

How to Set It Up—Step by Step

  • Pick a platform. X, Instagram, even Facebook if you’re old-school. Start fresh—no real name, no “JohnSmith72.”
  • Grab a throwaway email. Gmail’s fine if you dodge the phone trap, but it’s tricky in 2025. Paid ones like Proton sound private, but the company’s got your real name and info when you pay via PayPal or card. Use a random string like “x7k9p2m@whatever.com” and keep it detached.
  • Go random. Username like “ShadowCreek77” or “BlueRavenX”—nothing traceable. Nothing that hints at who you are.
  • Lock it down. Private settings on, followers approved, no geotags. If they can’t find you, they can’t snitch.
  • Use it smart. Share with your trusted circle—three close buddies, not thirty former classmates. Keep the prep talk quiet.
  • Bonus Tip: Old days, you’d snag a Hotmail with “CoolDad88” and call it good. Now? Even free ones demand your real name—thanks to ‘Know Your Customer’ laws pushing companies to ID you—and maybe a phone number too. Stash the login on paper, not cloud—old-school wins.
Survival Uses—Outsmarting the System

This is urban survival 101—OPSEC for the concrete jungle. Swap garden hacks with your crew, vent about the mayor, plan a move—all off-grid style, online. Got a nosy HOA? They won’t spot your hidden veggies if your burner stays off their radar.

The Machine’s pushing smart cities and social credit? Burners say nah—your life, your rules. Gen Z use it to dunk on rules; we can use it to protect what’s ours. Stay gray, stay safe.

Take Back Control, One Ghost Account at a Time

Set up a burner this week. Test it with a buddy—send a meme, swap a tip. Like sending a secret message. You’ll feel the power shift. Tech's grip is not invincible—small moves like this chip away at their game. Gen Z’s ahead, dodging the system with a smirk. We should too.

X still lets you skip real-name rules in 2025—for now. But the Web’s locking down fast. Phone checks and sign-up snags are creeping in. Burners keep you slippery. One burner’s a dodge; a million’s a blackout they can’t trace. Let’s outfox the machine—quietly.

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Saturday, March 29, 2025

Iranian Sleeper Cells to Activate? Don’t Hold Your Breath.

By Cade Shadowlight
     All my links: https://linktr.ee/cadeshowlight              

This happens about once or twice a year. Someone “in a position to know” whispers about sleeper cells, and suddenly, clickbait headlines flood conservative and survivalist websites and video channels. People on the right get fired up, dismissing anyone who questions the narrative as naive. Then, predictably, nothing happens. It’s become a tired cycle. Well, it’s happening again, so I’ll once more share my analysis of these so-called sleeper cells.

I’ve been hearing about these sleeper cells for most of my adult life. Supposedly, they’re here in the U.S., numbering 1,000 or more, just waiting to be activated, ready to unleash large-scale, well-organized violence on the “infidels” (that’s us).

The latest wave of fear-mongering claims these sleeper cells will launch attacks within the next couple of weeks, targeting hospitals in mid-sized cities across the country. Sound familiar? This was supposed to happen last fall—and didn’t. And it won’t happen this time either. Here’s why.
History and Commonsense Tell the Real Story
It’s no surprise that these sleeper cells didn’t activate last fall. After all, they’ve never activated in the past, even when they had the perfect opportunity and motive.
Take the so-called “Day of Rage” or “Day of Jihad” on October 13, 2023. It was called for by former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas. Yet nothing happened—at least, nothing grand or organized. There were a few protests, a stabbing, and some college professors saying foolish things, but that was it. No massive, coordinated attacks by these dreaded sleeper cells.

The sleeper cells didn’t activate after 9/11.

They didn’t activate after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.

They didn’t activate after the U.S. killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in early 2020 with a drone strike.

If any event should have triggered these supposed sleeper cells, it would have been Soleimani’s death. Iran revered him, and his killing was a major provocation. Yet, nothing happened.

Why not? Why have these sleeper cells never been activated? The reason seems obvious: they don’t exist. They’re fake news, propaganda used by both sides to stoke fear and push agendas.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t dangerous individuals here who might act out. Individual acts of violence and terrorism remain a real possibility. But at this point, the idea of well-organized, well-trained sleeper cells has been debunked by history and commonsense.
What Should You Do?
Keep living your life, ideally while building self-reliance through preparedness. Stay vigilant. Practice situational awareness. Be ready to defend yourself and your family. If you're really worried, avoid hospitals and large events for a few weeks. But don’t live in fear of sleeper cells that almost certainly don’t exist.

(Tip-of-the-Hat to Joe Fox, aka Viking Preparedness, for mentioning this topic in a recent video on his Patreon channel -- his take seems a bit more ambivalent than my "they don't exist" take.)

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