Cover for Status and Cover for Action

Two phrases you need to know about if you're involved in activism

While a lot of people think of “activism,” especially these days, as being destructive or even violent, that’s not actually the case--at least it doesn't need to be. There are plenty of things you can do as an activist that aren’t destructive, don’t harm people, and aren’t even illegal.

The problem, however, is that many of those things will still anger people who disagree with you, and there will be people willing to spend time and effort to either stop you from doing it, disrupt you while you do it, or even punish you in some way for even thinking about it.

We’ve already gone over the OPSEC process that will help establish a foundation for your activities. Today we’ll talk about the next layer: cover for status, and cover for action.

Cover for Status

Cover for status, plainly put, is your “costume.” It answers the question, “Who are you pretending to be?” It doesn’t even necessarily mean you’re pretending, but it can. It’s often used in a surveillance or even espionage context, but the principles are applicable to other activities done in support of your cause as well.

When you’re out doing activist things, you want to protect your critical information, and depending on what you’ve determined that includes, it may be just where you work or where your kids go to school, and it may be your entire identity.

It may also depend on the action you’re engaging in. If you’re just going to meet with your elected representatives, you may not need to protect much. If you’re going to a protest or other public activity, you’ll handle that a lot differently because you’re now subject to filming and subsequent doxxing by opposing parties.

If you need to protect your job, then common sense says you’ll want to not go to a protest in your work uniform or wearing your work ID badge. If you want to protect your entire identity from observers while meeting with a contact or engaging in other activities for your cause, you’ll want to blend into your surroundings. You want to be as unremarkable as possible.

Think about the last time you saw a construction worker. You see them all the time, so now think about what any of them looked like. You probably can’t, because they’re literally part of the landscape. We see them without really seeing them. That’s your goal as you go about your activist work: Be seen, but not remembered.

Cover for Action

If cover for status handles the question of who you are ‘being,’ then cover for action handles the question of why you’re doing what you’re doing at that moment.

Imagine that you’re attending a protest where you don’t agree with their positions or goals—not because you want to agitate or disrupt, but just to gather information about what’s going on in your area. Obviously, cover for status says you wouldn’t wear clothing that announces your opposition to their cause. You also wouldn’t want to pull up in a car with one of those “my kid is an honor student at Smithfield High” stickers.

If you’re just standing around at this event, not participating and looking like you’re checking it all out, you’re going to stand out like a sore thumb. People will notice you. In an emotionally charged and even volatile environment, you may be confronted by someone who (rightly) thinks you aren’t there for the same reason everyone else is.

So how do you blend in without having to engage in the protest? How do you ‘be there’ without being obvious? That’s where cover for action comes in. In our scenario, you could do any of these, or many more:

• Act like you’re just taking a break from work. For this you’d need to pay attention to where you are standing; if you’re outside a law office acting like a paralegal sneaking out for a quick smoke while dressed like you’re a homeless person, that’s not going to work. Same if you’re standing outside a Subway pretending to be an employee without a Subway uniform. Think about context and believability; in order for your cover to work, it needs to be plausible.

• Be a jogger just running by. This would be best used in a truly peaceful protest; if things are getting heated you don’t want to be perceived as running through or away from a scene.

• Get on your bike, throw a shoulder bag on, and be a busy bike messenger.

• In a commercial area with lots of shops, be a window shopper. Bonus points if you have an ice cream cone and a second person to stroll along with like you’re out on a date.

Years ago, a friend worked in a manufacturing plant that made a particular kind of machine that foreign entities were quite interested in. On several occasions assets from other countries in the plant were trying to steal information by taking photos, asking questions of employees, or even just wandering around. How they got in to the facility was easy. They took the public tour and then “got lost.” Turns out that if you're walking around a plant with a clipboard while walking with purpose, no one asks you what you're doing or why you're there. It happened successfully so often that the company had to make a new policy to train employees to spot it occurring. That's cover for status and cover for action.

Some of the above ideas are better than others; naturally it depends on the type of event, how big or tense it is, what your goal is, how long you need to be there to get what you need, and what your comfort level is. You could always just join the protest and walk along with the crowd; just be highly aware if things start escalating so you can exit quietly.

Cover for status and action are just two more tools in a varied toolbox, and quite frankly, they don’t need to only be used in an activism scenario. There may come a time when you’ll need these tools just to move between Point A and Point B.

One fringe benefit of the mask mandates was that you could literally blend in by obscuring your face. With a baseball cap, some sunglasses and a face mask, you could be nearly unrecognizable to someone who may want to remember you later--unless, of course, you are wearing clothing or gear that gives away your true purpose.

Being able to fade into whatever environment you’re in is a fantastic skill with a myriad of uses. It requires thought and practice, but it’s a skill you should be perfecting now, even if you don’t need it…yet.