Anti-Infiltration Tactics: What Real Vetting Looks Like Part 1
Public records and social media checks? Amateur hour. Here's how you really make sure you're getting the right people.
Last week we talked about how infiltration works, and today we’ll start talking about how to truly prevent it. Now that we’ve seen how the human factor is truly the weakest link in a group, the logical approach to preventing issues is to limit the types of people you recruit.
If your group is vetting properly, it will be small; most people won’t get in. If you couple solid vetting procedures with realistic and achievable goals, you’ll also be highly effective for your cause.
You want people who fit at least the following criteria:
They share your worldview. This might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many groups have members who are more or less radical than the group, or even have different goals altogether.
They understand their role in the group, and are competent and willing to perform—or learn how. Too many times groups are willing to carry ‘dead weight’ members because they don’t want to lose the numbers.
They are honest about themselves. People who are dishonest do a huge disservice to the groups they’re in at best. At worst, they can destroy things from the inside out.
They won’t ‘go rogue.’ There’s nothing worse than a group member that decides to go off book, so to speak, representing the group poorly or even making a mess for the group to clean up later.
We’ve already talked about the kinds of people you want in your group; this is a minimum list.
Open Recruiting
In an open recruiting model, which is what most groups use, prospects ask to be in the group. The group then decides whether the interested party can join or not. They may have a process by which they decide that, or they may simply let in anyone. In an open recruiting process, the following things are true:
The prospect is aware the group exists
They are at least moderately aware of what the goals are
They already know at least some of the membership list
They already have at least an idea of the group’s capabilities and/or training level
They have a desire to identify with the group’s banner
All five of those points constitute an avenue of approach for infiltration. In fact, it could be argued that if a prospect knows the above things about your group, they already know too much. They can tailor their own approach, specifically targeting your group for their own ends.
You can create a robust vetting process to weed out most of the bad seeds, but there is always a chance that someone is good enough at infiltration to get through your process. That’s a risk you and your group need to evaluate depending on what your group is doing. We’ll talk about how open recruiting groups can get people while minimizing that risk in a future issue.
Closed Recruiting
The closed recruiting model is just what it sounds like—applications don’t exist. There isn’t an ongoing advertisement for people; in fact, the group doesn’t even advertise that it exists. In many cases it doesn’t even have a name. It’s just a small group of people getting things done for their cause. Or they may have a name that has nothing to do with the actual purpose.
They may be hiding in plain sight, acting as something else. This goes back to cover for status and cover for action. These groups might be quite public—but not as political activism groups. Instead, they have an activity they’re engaged in that is essentially giving them plausible deniability.
Community education
Neighborhood watch
First responders
Survival training
There is no end to what your group can be in the public eye. I’ve seen highly effective groups operating as everything from hiking groups to book clubs. If you’re smart, you’ll choose an activity that allows you to train and study your real purpose while not giving it away if an outsider visits.
Wait, you might be thinking. How does THAT work?
Book clubs can study and discuss writings from both their own side and the opposing side, or look at how-to manuals for their purpose (this goes back to being a well-read activist!).
Hiking groups get very familiar with their local terrain while building physical fitness and stamina.
Neighborhood watch groups have a perfectly valid reason to be meeting and discussing threats in their local area.
First responders train in everything from fire suppression to rescue tactics to medical assistance.
Cooking clubs can focus on how to build a diet that maximizes health with limited supplies or equipment.
A prospect for this group is literally only going to know about the public activity, and that’s what they’re attempting to join. They don’t know your true capability, or your true goals, and that means they don’t have an avenue to infiltrate you. You cannot infiltrate what you don’t even know exists.
Groups with a closed recruiting model also enjoy freedom to operate in the public eye because they are merely part of the landscape. No one notices construction workers as individuals, for instance. The brain tends to categorize and dismiss; you see the orange vest or other object denoting them as construction workers, and then you dismiss them. You don’t ask yourself “why are they here?” or “are they doing something bad?” You certainly don’t wonder how you can infiltrate them and derail their efforts.
The same principle is at work in a closed group. No one will care about your book club, your hiking group, or your sewing club. If they do care enough to visit, it’s a simple matter because there’s nothing for the person to see. You’re just discussing books or cooking food.
But How Does a Closed Recruiting Group Get People?
It may seem that closed recruiting model groups simply don’t recruit at all, and for some of them that’s a true statement. They may already have the people they need, and aren’t interested in growth at all, merely the operational freedom that plausible deniability provides.
Closed groups can, however, recruit people, and if they do it for the right reasons and in the right way, they can even improve their capabilities while minimizing any risk. We will talk about how exactly they do it in the next issue.
Kit Perez is a counterintelligence and deception analyst, and the co-author of Basics of Resistance: The Practical Freedomista. She is currently working on her second book, which will focus on group activism efforts.