In this last week we have learned the Signal App on your phone has been targeted, quite successfully I might add, by an elaborate phishing scam. Specifically targeting government and security personnel.
Yesterday I read on X how VPNs are basically a scam. Built by former intelligence agents for the UAE to spy on the very people it was marketed towards.
I have used those two in conjunction while working overseas. They were the best ideas for communication tools at the time, and everyone made it home safely, so they helped with that most important task. I do wonder who all monitored us though.
Here is the deal, communication is extremely important ability to have if you want to work effectively. One of the many keys to US militaries success in WWII was the ability to do combined arms, or having the infantry talk to the artillery, air, and sea components. Having every work together puts you ahead in the OODA Loop. In the Border Patrol I felt the radio was the most useful tool on my gun belt. It was certainly the most used.
Team sports demand the ability to work well together and the ability to rapidly rely on information is a key component of that. Security is a team sport. From your day-to-day life with your family, to your job, and if you have a Mutual Assistance Group (MAG) all are team sports. The Rhodesian farmers used the Agric-Alert radio network with great success (they are great MAG model, more on them soon).
We live in one of the most connected times in history with our sell phones. It is important to remember that NOTHING on your phone is secure. NOTING on any device hooked to the internet is secure. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you or naive.
Many people love to use HAM or GMRS radio for communication, those have their place as well as a tool. They aren’t secure either, and it is easier for anyone off the street to monitor and locate the users of these tools.
I’m not saying to avoid radios and phones, just that they aren’t secure. To most people in their day-to-day lives this doesn’t matter much, past getting oddly specific targeted ads. It is bothersome and scary in a place where we are supposed to be guaranteed to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
Some will say that if you have nothing to hide then it doesn’t matter. Well in Russian during the Bolshevik Revolution, German during the Nazi rise to power, and untold other events through history having the wrong view was enough to be persecuted, quite violently. Those movements are gaining traction here and now. The surveillance state will make it easier than in the past to do what the Bolsheviks and Nazis did.
Remember the ability to talk is greatly important, it is just not secure. Keep that in mind as the world gets crazier. Make a plan to talk to your family and friends. Lastly, see the world for what it is, nothing more and nothing less.
Stay safe out there.
-Joseph
Outpost 95 