OPSEC Attacks
Loose lips sink ships
You can use every computer security trick in the book, but if you then use your name or even a known alias of you such as a gaming callsign, then your current internet activity gets associated with your name. If you have a social media account, you connected no real information about you to it, but then slip and use your real name or other identifying information on that account, then you have failed to keep your real identity separate from your internet alias. Some people have been caught simply because their speech patterns in their public account, and their anonymous account match.
You are the easiest failure point to exploit. It's said that modern encryption practices can takes years of server farms to crack, essentially $10 million dollars worth of computer time. But you can crack a password out of a human by beating him with a $10 wrench until he gives up the password. The only way to keep a secret is to tell nobody.
"The only way two people can keep a secret, is if one of them is dead."
Remember, if you catch a friend talking about something they don't need to talk about, remind them that "Loose lips sink ships".
Correlation Attack
A correlation attack is when two things are statistically related, typically when your public information matches with anonymous information. Similar speech patterns as mentioned above are one such example.
A second example would be if you login to the Tor network (will be covered later), and at the same time a notorious meme account connects to social media from the Tor network and posts some new memes onto his page. Then when he logs off, you also disconnect from the Tor network. The Tor network is not necessarily secure (I will get more into this later), but even if theoretically it is then the fact that you are connected at the same times as someone using the Tor network to do something privately is a correlation that can get you found out.
As an example, there was a case of a bomb threat at a college during finals week. The University checked the internet logs at the dorm and found a single Tor user at the time of the bomb threat. He immediately folded when they spoke to him. If he had simply walked off campus to a public coffee shop and called the bomb threat there the University wouldn't have been able to correlate that activity. Although state level agencies could potential have made the same correlation attack later, they probably would not have even bothered.
Goal oriented internet usage
The internet is an addictive substance, unfortunately for many things it is a necessary substance. The term "doom-scrolling" refers to scrolling down endless social media feeds. "Feed" is also what you give to farm animals that are not free roam, just fyi.
So how do you avoid doom-scrolling? Stoicism is a good thing to practice, but more specific advice is to not connect to the internet without a goal, and then disconnect when you have accomplished your goal.
For example, perhaps you need to look up a definition of a word, then look that up and then disconnect. Perhaps you want to learn how to start a fire, log into Youtube, and search for "starting a fire". In the case of Youtube, they don't have a dedicated search page. You have to go to the home page with the recommendations the Youtube algorithm shows you what they suspect will trigger your dopamine the most.
The more goal oriented you are in your internet usage, the less likely you are to fall into doom-scrolling.
An ounce of Prevention
Refusing to give a password to law enforcement is a crime, but even if nothing is found you could still be in trouble. A German 3D Firearm designer died of a "heart attack" two days after a raid from German authorities.
The best method of avoiding these fates is to not do anything that will catch the attention of authorities. I would like to remind you that I do not condone illegal or immoral activity, use what you learn here responsibly and don't do anything stupid.
Instead you are better off building your own tribe and making it stronger. If you could solve the world's problems you would've already done it. It's easy to let go of your own personal responsibilities and ignore your local community when you could instead scream on Twitter. Do not fall into these self-destructive psy-ops, and build instead.
"Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
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