Infiltration: The Boogeyman of Political Activists

Your enemies are trying to get into your group. Here is how they do it.

Infiltration is something that groups should be highly concerned about. This week we will talk about infiltration a lot: who's doing it, why it's such a tried and true tactic, and why we need to be guarding against it.

It's a controversial topic, partly because a lot of groups either don't guard effectively, or because they don't think it's a big deal. Some of the more oblivious groups I've seen believe that if they actually got infiltrated, the intruder would be sorely bored to find that the group is full of “good people” who “aren't doing anything wrong.”

There's no nice way to say this: that is remarkably stupid, and I'll explain why this week. First, let's back up a bit and talk about what infiltration is and what it seeks to do.

What Infiltration Is

Infiltration, at its core, involves someone attempting to get access to or membership in a group for their own purposes.

There are different types of infiltration, and not all of them have the same goals. A pedophile, for instance, may try to place themselves in a situation where they have access to children--daycare, Little League, mentoring programs, or Sunday School. Gangs and cartels are notorious for sending people to enlist in the military for training on weapons, intelligence and tactics.

In the political or even prepping arena, there are many different types of people who may want to infiltrate a group.

• Jack is a thief who starts attending a local prepping group's meetings to get information on who has what so he can steal their supplies later.

• Jill just got hired on a GOP campaign, but she secretly hates the candidate and plans to derail the campaign in any way she can.

• Bob is an ultra-left activist who is in all the Oathkeeper patriot groups looking for information on members so he can doxx them.

• Katie is an undercover federal agent in a particularly extreme leftist animal rights group that wants to plan violent acts at labs that experiment on animals.

• Joseph is a grifter who likes to get himself in trouble by acting rashly “for the cause” and then asking for donations from like-minded folks, which he may or may not spend on his “defense.”

All of these people are infiltrators, and their goals will disrupt or even destroy the groups they're in if met. They could do any of the following:

• Cause drama between the members

• Disrupt operations through sabotage (this includes tech)

• Embezzlement or theft

• Poor or wrong training

• HUMINT or SIGINT collection

• Putting doubt in members’ minds about the cause

• Encouraging them to do illegal acts

If these groups aren't paying attention, and they don't have a proactive process to deal with it, these infiltrators will take them down—or at least keep them so busy dealing with internal issues that they don’t have the time or resources to actually work toward goals.

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff in 2016 is a classic example of a successful infiltration. There were multiple informants, and they had access to planning, transportation, supply, logistics, and leadership. Not only did they increase tension during the event, they also helped degrade public support for the operation, even among like-minded folks throughout the country. Malheur is an excellent case study, in fact, of how not to conduct political activism—but if you’ve been following for the last few weeks you already understand why.

Phases of a Successful Infiltration

In order to achieve its goal, an infiltration follows a specific process. Think of it in terms of the amount of work needed to get from point A to point B. A group that is mostly online and accepts anyone, for instance, requires a lot less work than a group that is small, local, and highly security-minded.

All infiltrations, however, start with the Research/Emplace phase. In order to get into the group, the intruder has to know something about them.

Let’s assume for the purposes of this exercise that the group in question is a national presence group with smaller groups at state and local levels. That’s a pretty standard setup for a lot of the better-known political activism groups. The hierarchy usually goes something like this:

(National Figurehead) > State Leader > County Leader > (Local Groups) > Individuals

The positions in parentheses may not exist; you might just have a state level group that goes directly from county level to individuals.

Because the group spans the entire state or country, communication is done online. The local groups might talk on the phone or meet face to face, but at the county, state, and national level you’ll find group chats on mediums like Signal or Telegram. Some actually use Facebook Messenger (this type of security disregard can be an article of its own).

While many groups talk about security, the large majority either don’t know how to correctly put it into practice or they want to disregard best practices and “roll their own.” Those groups end up having glaring holes in their protocols. The group’s communication, then, is a prime research and emplace point for an infiltrator.

In one group I’m familiar with, there was a nightly ‘check in’ a while back on Zello, in which each person in the state was expected to log in if possible and at least say “hey I’m here.” Many of the members ended up hanging out in the voice chat for some time after the check-in, just chatting with others in the group. Sounds like a harmless thing that even builds camaraderie, right? Wrong. It was actually the perfect place to engage in infiltration research.

• The check in meeting had a password for ‘security,’ but it was posted each night on the group’s Facebook page. Literally anyone on earth could join with zero hassle. This means a wide open avenue of approach for any would-be infiltrator.

• Most of the members had their profile completely filled out on Zello, including their position in the group, skill set, real name, and location. A simple scan of the userlist in the voice chat, and someone could map out the entire group, including the leadership chain of command.

• Because there were so many people logging into the chat each night, it would be easy to go undetected. Even if someone did notice a new name in the userlist and questioned them, the group’s desire for growth means that all the intruder has to do is express interest in the group and its goals, and poof! New member.

• The ‘after-chat’ that took place each night involved all kinds of chatter. Everything from “yeah, my 5-year-old has an ear infection so she was up all night” to “my wife and I are fighting like crazy lately.” People often feel comfortable sharing online, even to those they’ve never met. All that personal information is a gold mine for an infiltrator. Somewhere in all that chatting, people give away themselves.

During the research phase, an infiltrator is looking for things that can help inform his actions and help him slip past the defenses—if any exist to begin with.

• Leadership: goals, motivations, weaknesses. Who are they as people?

• Members: Do the goals match those of leadership? How do they view their leaders? Who are they as people?

• What does the group want?

• What do they need in order to reach their goals?

These questions, and many more, go into the research needed to successfully infiltrate a group. In the next issue, we’ll talk about the next (and most critical) phase: disruption. Subscribe now for free so you don’t miss it!