I've been telling you people: tech ain't your friend. I want to talk about this a bit, so read on.

https://twitter.com/hahussain/status/1836035130416124390

As of right now, there's no specific information on exactly what make and model of pagers were involved, or if they were pagers at all. They could have been one of those SIM-based radios or similar.

However, all signs point to this being a malware-based remote attack by Israeli intelligence at this time.

So, how could someone pull something like this off?

Yesterday, when I mentioned that Starlink would be of limited use in a true emergency situation in which there may be infrastructural issues with parts of the internet, many people demonstrated they don't quite understand how the internet works.

So, this morning, we're going to dive into that a bit. Buckle up. A 🧵. First, your primary interaction with the internet is likely through phone apps or web browsers. To you, it's simple as can be: you launch the app, or type in a domain in the address bar of your browser (or, if you're like most people, just use a search engine and click on the first link that looks reasonable), and you're taken to the content and/or functionality you want.

It's nowhere near that simple. And I'm going to try to avoid analogies so people don't get confused, while also trying to be as detailed as possible but still keeping it simple for the layperson.

To begin, you need to understand how you get to what you want on the internet. And that begins with addressing. Everything connected to the internet has an address. In fact, they have multiple addresses, but we'll get to that in a bit. For now, I'm discussing Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses.

You generally don't interact with or even see these. They look like a dotted quad: 192.168.37.42, for example.

What you generally see and interact with are domain names. Fully-qualified domain names, to be specific. A domain name looks like: .

In , there are actually 3 domains, and a subdomain:

www: subdomain
: second level domain
com: top level domain
.: root domain

You're probably wondering where that final period (".") came from that I labeled "root domain". It's implied at the end of every domain, after the top level domain.

Every domain name registered on the internet is purchased through either a registrar, or an agent acting on behalf of a registrar. A registrar is a company that has permission to sell entries in a database held by a registry.
Registries are companies given authority over the data for top level domains.

So, for example, there is a registry for .com. That registry company sells the rights to create entries in the .com database to various registrars, who in turn sell domain names to the public.

When someone buys a domain name, they give their money to a registrar, and that registrar puts the domain name in the top level domain's registry database.

So, let's say I buy . I pay my money, and my personal details (or those of a privacy agent I pay to mask my personal details) are entered into the registry database for .com, stating that I own that domain. Along with that are some unique identifiers, an expiry date for the domain, and two or more domain names or IP addresses for authoritative nameservers.

The authoritative nameservers become very important in a minute. They are the location of the database that contains all the data for the subdomains of . So, for example, it'll contain the IP address for , if I put it in there. And I have to, because since I own , I'm responsible for managing the addressing for anything under it.

The root domain servers know the IP addresses for all the registries for all the top level domains in the world.

So! When you type in into your web browser, or a phone app tries to access , your computer starts a whole series of questions going out into the internet, trying to find out the IP address for .

This is generally done using a caching recursive resolver (we're going to skip over things like stub resolvers for the purpose of this thread). A caching recursive resolver is the closest most of you will come to interacting with DNS infrastructure. Many people use popular ones like 8.8.8.8, or 1.1.1.1. Other people are content to use the ones assigned to them and run by their ISP.

So, when you try to connect to , your computer reaches out to whichever caching recursive resolvers your computer knows about, and says, "Hey! What's the IP address for ?"

They will either know the answer because they've already done the research and have saved ("cached") the answer, and it'll answer immediately, telling your computer the IP address, or it'll begin the process of recursive resolution.

In recursive resolution, the caching recursive resolver looks up the IP address for one of the root DNS servers, which is stored locally on the caching recursive resolver as part of the configuration process in what's called a "root hints" file, and goes and asks the root server "Hey! What's the IP address for ?"

The root server doesn't know. Because that's not its job. Its job is to know the IP addresses of the top level domain registry databases. So the root server responds, "Beats me. Go ask Bob. Bob's responsible for .com." and gives the caching recursive resolver the IP address for the .com registry.

The caching recursive resolver goes and asks the .com registry, "Hey, what's the IP address for ?" And it responds, "Who knows? Go ask Bill; he's responsible for !" and gives it the names for the authoritative nameservers I put in when I registered .

Now the caching recursive resolver has to start another entire process of recursion to look up the IP addresses for the names I put in as the authoritative nameservers for . Once the caching recursive resolver has those IP addresses, it goes to whichever one it wants (not really, but we're not addressing nameserver priorities, round-robining, and such here) and says, "Everyone tells me you're responsible for . What's the IP address for ?"

And, all else being equal (there are multiple further wrinkles I'm avoiding to keep this simple), your caching recursive resolver is told the IP address for .

It then caches that response, which it'll keep until the TTL (time to live) value assigned to the answer expires (it won't, but that's an entirely other story and has to do with a whole lot of politics, comp sci, and DNS inside baseball; I used to work for the guy who invented DNS, so I got to see the sausage get made routinely), and it gives your computer the IP address for .

That's before your computer or phone has sent a single bit of data to .

As you can see, there's a whole lot that can go wrong just in this process alone. If any point along any of this fails, or provides incorrect information, you can't reach .

And there are myriad ways in which any of that I just described could fail. We'll be discussing some of those further along.

One spectacular way it can fail is human stupidity. Back in 2016, a journalist named Brian Krebs was investigating some criminals pulling scams on unsuspecting businesses, selling them DDoS protection while the criminals were the ones perpetrating the DDoS attacks.

He embarassed them pretty good. In response, the criminals executed what was then the world's largest DDoS attack against his website.

His website was hosted by a company called Akamai. Akamai's a big deal in the internet world. They're responsible for a whole lot of stuff. One of the things they provide is DNS hosting -- that is, providing authoritative DNS services for individuals and companies. Like I described up above, when I bought . I said I was responsible for managing the data for . I'm also responsible for making that data available to the internet. I could run my own authoritative nameserver, but common practice these days is to pay someone else.

Akamai is one of those someone elses. And tons of people pay them for exactly this. Very large companies, like microsoft, and amazon, and zoom, and a bunch of other companies you'd instantly recognize.

When those criminals launched that massive DDoS, it revealed to the world how dumb most network folks are these days: they ignored . IANA is the organization responsible for all the rules and standards regarding how the internet works. There have always been requirements for how DNS should be run. The ones we're concerned with here are that there should always be at least two authoritative nameservers, they should not be the same, and they should not be run by the same company, on the same infrastructure, in the same geographic or logical area.

That last one totally f*cked the entire East Coast of the US, and thus, much of the world, that day. Because everyone and their dog decided they'd just make all their authoritative nameservers be Akamai servers.

So, when Akamai got attacked, none of those authoritative nameservers could be reached.

And these days, the TTL for most names is 0 or very close to it. Which means answers for name queries only get cached for a few seconds.

Which, in turn, means recursive resolvers are constantly having to recurse to get the latest IP for a name. Which means they have to be able to talk to the authoritative nameservers responsible for the names they need IPs for.

That day, no one could, because everyone ignored IANA.

And they still do. To this very day. Not a single lesson was learned. Everyone just makes both their authoritative nameservers different names within the same company, usually within the same network, in the same geographic region.

A handful of p*ssed off script kiddies took Amazon and many other of the largest internet companies offline that day, and weren't even trying to.

So, when I say the internet is fragile and there are tons of ways you can effectively take it down, this is but one example of what I meant.

And all I've covered so far is how to get an IP address for a domain name. We haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet.

I've also avoided topics like DNS cache poisoning, NXDOMAIN redirection, typosquatting, domain sniping, bitsquatting, and other ways to manipulate DNS results, because I'm -- you'll chuckle at this point -- trying to keep it simple.

Next, we'll discuss a bit about how data flows over the internet, and what your computer does with that IP address. But first, I need another cup of coffee, so don't get impatient.example.com
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iana.org/help/nameserve…

Since my post yesterday, I've had several people privately ask how to go from where I was a year ago, to where I am now.

So, I'm going to spend some time talking about this. It'll touch on a lot of things, so pay attention. Read on...

https://twitter.com/DolioJ/status/1819548312195977539

First, some background on me: I've been lifting heavy for more than 20 years, though I stopped around 2015, due to a serious injury on the platform at a national competition. It wasn't my first such injury; in 2013, I snapped my right forearm in half on the upstroke of my first attempt at benching 385 in training. That won me a plate, five pins, and a screw in that arm, and a year-plus of agonizing pain, trying to work through what turned out to be tendon adhesions to the interosseous membrane (thank you, Kelly Starrett, for taking the time to see me at your gym and help me figure out what multiple medical specialists and therapists couldn't).

I used to be a competitive powerlifter, and nationally ranked. In 2015, I went to New Jersey to compete in a national competition. For that meet, I was lighter than I've ever been: I weighed in at 220, having cut from the mid 240s in a week's time (yes, it's possible, by severely manipulating your body's water retention and sodium content). Rehydrating and replacing electrolytes immediately after weigh in, I was back to mid 230s within an hour. After eating, I was back to around 240.

That's pretty normal for competitors, particularly at that level.

Anyway, I was also competing raw, after years of geared lifting ("gear", in this context, is bench shirts and squat and deadlift suits). In this particular league, "raw" meant not even using wrist or knee wraps. Completely raw. Also a novelty for me.

For those unfamiliar with powerlifting, it's an individual event, where competitors each do three squats, followed by three bench attempts, followed by three deadlifts, with each competitor rotating through one lift before doing their next.

On my third squat, I told the spotters to take the weight, as I felt something off and very painful in my lower back. I found out later I'd herniated both L4 and L5. At the time, I thought I'd just pulled a muscle.

I got assisted off the platform, went to the back of the room, and lay on the floor, while I had my wife get my horse liniment, DMSO, and capsaicin, and I applied all liberally to my lower back. Then, I tried to roll it (I don't use a foam roller; I use a 6" diameter PVC pipe; I find it more effective). The liniments and such helped with the pain enough that I could gingerly roll the area, and I was well enough to get through my bench warmups, though I only took 3 different weights.

I completed my benches successfully, but by that time, because you keep a tight arch when doing a powerlift bench, my back was even worse.

By the time it was time for deadlifts, I didn't even warm up. I told the scoring table and judges I was going to just take one, light, token deadlift at around 550lbs (I was going to go for a personal best around 740 at that meet; it wasn't to be).

I spent the next two to three years rehabbing my back, and not lifting at all. I refused to get back surgery, because everyone I talked to that'd had surgery for their hernias felt they were worse off after than without the surgery. So, lots and lots of chiropractic work, infrared light therapy, warm castor oil compresses, and stretching, not to mention my wife's infinite patience, and I was more or less healed.

But I hadn't lifted since.

Several people have asked what they should focus on to start prepping.

Frankly, if you didn't start quite some time ago, it's too late.

However, to humor those who feel the need:

1) a serviceable semiauto 5.56 rifle, with optic and a sling. Learn to shoot it. Learn to maintain it. Buy consumables (BCG, barrel, springs, etc.), and the tools necessary to service the platform. Learn your zero. Dial it in. Learn to reconfirm occasionally.

2) a serviceable semiauto pistol in your preferred caliber (as long as it's at least 9mm), with night sights and IWB holster. Learn to shoot it. Learn to maintain it. Buy consumables (barrel, firing pin, springs, etc.), and the tools necessary to service the platform. Learn how to smoothly and quickly draw from concealed, how to properly present and acquire a sight picture.

3) significant quantities of ammo for both, in preferred configuration. I prefer 77gr OTM for the 5.56, and currently carry G9 ammo in my 9mm. But you do you. "Significant quantities" is arguable, but frankly, I can easily go through 1,000 rounds a month on either platform just going to the range. A short range trip is 400-500 rounds. 10k rounds of 5.56 isn't a lot. I probably only keep about 5k 9mm rounds on hand, however, because most of my work will be done with the rifle.

4) a GOOD ($300-500, or thereabouts) fixed blade knife of an appropriate size for bushcraft work, and good stones to sharpen it with. Learn how to use it. Learn how to sharpen it.

5) You need several pairs of serviceable long pants and long-sleeve shirts. Things that will stand up to crawling on your knees and elbows a lot. Things that will withstand getting and staying dirty. Things that are going to break up your silhouette and help you blend into your environment.

6) You need several pairs of serviceable gloves. See #5.

7) You need a good stock of undergarments and wool socks.

8) You need two pairs of GOOD boots, designed for hiking/climbing/moving over rough terrain. And you need to break them in. Get multiple extra pairs of laces.

9) Dry bags in assorted sizes.

10) A solid ruck.

11) Some form of load-bearing equipment (LBE). Whether this is a battle belt, a chest rig, or both. Figure out what works best for you.

12) Radios capable of transmitting and receiving in HF, UHF, and VHF, and the knowledge and skill to use them, along with the ability to power them in austere environments.

13) Multiple means of starting fires, and knowledge of how to build various types of fires, including smokeless, and the knowledge of when not to build fires, and how to properly rid yourself of them when decamping.

14) A GOOD light. One that preferably emits white, red, and green or blue light. A headlamp is ideal. You also need rechargeable batteries and the means to recharge them.

15) Portable, sustainable power generation.

16) A solid land nav compass, the ability to read a map properly and navigate with it.

17) Signal mirror.

18) Paracord.

19) A QUIET tarp or shelter half.

20) Duct tape/100MPH tape. In a matte color.

21) Some means of carrying at least two quarts of water.

22) Man-portable water filtration, and the knowledge of how to collect water in multiple ways, including things like solar stills and how to get water from plants.

23) several GOOD, fully-stocked IFAKs and a few larger, better-equipped FAKs, and the knowledge of how and when to use everything in each.

...and that's just some of what'd go in your pack or on your person, plus a few things that'd stay nearby in a hide or camp. I haven't even touched on sustainment, such as near-term food and water, hunting, trapping, fishing, long-term food and water, skills like stalking, light/signals/trash/noise discipline, medicine, foraging, and so on.

I mean, if you really feel compelled, you can start buying stuff. But buying stuff isn't what you need. You need the skills and knowledge of how and when to use the stuff you'll buy. And that's what you don't have time for.

Buying things will not save you. Also, be aware I left out TONS of stuff. Considerations for environment, climate, and season. Several good, serviceable hats. Camo pattern selection. What to do about body odors and cooking odors. How, when, and where to dig a latrine. How to skin and gut your kills. How to preserve food. How to purify water. Silcock keys. Heavy equipment keys. Lockpicks. Bolt cutters. Entrenching tools. Axe and/or hatchet. Camo netting. Cobra hood. Multitools. Trench periscope. Good basic set of general-purpose tools. Signal flags. Waterproofing. Rain covers and ponchos. Why personal hygiene is critical in the field. Adequate nutritional considerations. Bush and fieldcraft.

There's just so much, and the window to learn any of it is closing very rapidly.

I can recommend all of @DolioJ's books, all of @DonShift3's books, all of @wayofftheres's books, and all of @Brushbeater's books. They're not a substitute for training, but at least you'll have something to work from.

Also, books like and and . Dave Canterbury's Bushcraft books. Selco Begovic's books.amazon.com/dp/B0CSZ55N9J
amazon.com/gp/product/B08…
amazon.com/gp/product/151…

Before I crawl back under my rock today and lick my wounds, I want to say something about how incredibly shortsighted and myopic most of humanity is.

We, collectively, have the attention span and memory of a crack-addled gnat. We look out on today's sociopolitical condition, and cannot imagine this country any worse than what we see today.

Yet, in the 1960s and 70s, there were hundreds(!) of insurgent, terrorist bombings on US soil, committed by radical militant leftist terror cells. Some of these weren't just against civilian targets, but against government targets. The State Department was bombed. The Pentagon was bombed. The Capitol Building. The US AG's office. Police stations around the country. And that was just one group of leftist radicals.

Cities burned. Not like in 2020. Much of South Central Los Angeles burned in 1965. Dozens of people were murdered.

A sitting POTUS was assassinated in front of thousands of onlookers, and on live national television.

And this is a period in our history so recent many of you, or your parents, lived through it. It was only 60 years ago. But we no longer speak of it. We no longer teach this period of American history in school, even though it was, for the current age, one of the most formative periods for our country. We no longer heed its lessons.

We have descended into comfortable, willful ignorance.

I do not know what to think about this. Every fiber of my being screams that this is wrong, that it's a trap. And, to a great extent, it is.

It may also be the only thing preventing violent, bloody revolution in this country at this point.

Last night, I was re-reading "War of the Flea", and I was struck by some of the preconditions for a successful insurgency vis a vis our situation in the US today.

First, any successful insurgency must have the support of the people. That would be quite difficult in today's society, because while most people suffer quietly through their daily travails, they are, for the most part, comfortable. They like what they have, and are unwilling to give it up. Unless an insurgency has absolutely mastered the art of propaganda, today's populace would see any insurgent act as threatening their comfortable existence. Unless the insurgency can frame every action, every deprivation, every discomfort created in the name of revolution as coming from the State, the insurgency would fail. And, coupled with the State's total control of media, that would be extremely difficult to accomplish.

Second, all successful insurgencies start in rural areas. While there is no shortage of disgruntled patriots in rural areas, the insurgencies often rely on "fellow travelers" to spread the message and support the cause. This is usually where the intelligentsia come into play: intellectuals and students agitating for change. I cannot see a point at which rural America would join forces with modern urban leftist intellectuals. We have a somewhat unique situation in America in that our rural population does not view itself as proletariat; the plight of the downtrodden farmer in the US is not a cause leftist students in the US would flock to. While there may be common ground, the US population is too polarized to see it.

Wittingly or not, the power structure in the US has crafted a comfortable cage for the masses, and kept the people at each other's throats long enough that they may have successfully managed to create a climate in which insurgency at any meaningful scale is impossible.

The only insurgency that may still be possible in the US is a Maoist-style insurgency, in which leftist militants go forth into the rural areas and implement top-down control of small towns and villages. Which cannot happen until the population is disarmed.

No, we are still a fair ways away from any successful insurgency on US soil, and if and when it comes, it will likely not be a right-leaning one. If anything, rural America will be the counterinsurgents; the partisans. The Left in this country has too much popular support, political clout and backing, financial, legal, and logistic support, and media control. The collective response to the attempted overthrow of the US government in the 60s and early 70s was disco, cocaine, and indiscriminate sex. While the rest of the world saw violent upheaval, we drugged and f*cked ourselves into a stupor. And stayed there through the recession and gas rationing, until the other party took power and ushered in a period of new American prosperity.

We are a country of addicts, and we use our additions to hide from reality. And the reality is: we're cattle.

I have to hand it to the power elite over the past 100 years or so: They've either played a very successful long game, or they're the luckiest sumb*tches ever to walk the planet.

This is not a black pill, but it'll feel like it to some.

What they intend to do:

1) They will eliminate private vehicle ownership. You will no longer be able to move freely, unless it's with your own two feet. Even then, you will be tracked.

2) They will eliminate private real property ownership. You will be serfs enthralled to the manor lord in perpetuity.

3) They will drastically reduce domestic food production (actual food, not synthetics and highly processed items). This will mean the elimination of domestic meat and produce consumption, from all but the biggest corporate farms.

4) They will introduce new ways to track and enforce your participation in the medical-pharmaceutical complex.

5) They will push "meat substitutes" on a wide scale.

6) mRNA gene therapy (not actually a vaccine, so sayeth the 9th Circuit Court of appeals: ) directly into the food you consume.

7) Water rights will continue to be restricted and sold instead to corporate interests like Nestle, who will turn right back around and sell that water to you.

8) They have discovered that medical emergencies grant them the power they need, in the Hegelian Dialectic they prefer. You can count on them occurring with near-annual frequency from here on in.

9) The legal/"justice" system will continue to be weaponized, and dissidents (anyone who disagrees with the Party line) will be persecuted and/or jailed.

10) illegal immigrants will continue to flood into the country with the help of DoD and DHS. They will be granted amnesty and will be used to restaff police and military forces.

11) Elections will get worse, and the cheating become more transparent. They will simply persecute and/or jail those who speak out against it. Political assassinations will increase.

12) A social credit score, whose components are already in place, will be formally introduced and deployed.

13) American Hegemony will continue to decline. We will find ourselves second to China on the global stage, and behind BRICS economically. The US dollar will be removed as the world reserve currency.

14) SWIFT will be replaced with centralized blockchain cross-border settlement systems. This is already happening, you're just not being told about it.

15) Cash will become less and less accepted at retail outlets.

16) Local and regional banks will continue to disappear. In-person banking will dwindle, followed shortly thereafter by ATMs. In the near future, you will never lay hands on cash again; the dollar will exist in name only, in computers run by banks. Eventually, this will switch over to a centralized blockchain solution in all but name.

17) UBI (Universal Basic Income) will be formally rolled out nationwide.

18) Controls will be placed on what you can buy, how much, and from whom. This is already occurring, but you're not hearing about it. Research "debanking".

19) Home farming will be criminalized. This is already happening, but you're not hearing about it.

20) the Defense Production Act will be used to persecute and jail anyone suspected of "hoarding" items in excess the government thinks you should have.

They don't have to disarm us. They will simply make it impossible to buy or sell arms. Lawfare and political persecution, in tandem with red flag laws, will be used to disarm "problematic" individuals.cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opin… What can you do about this?

1) Use cash as much as possible. When and as possible, use precious metals.

2) Buy local as much as possible.

3) Begin growing your own food. Buy meat and produce locally, from local farmers.

4) Drive older vehicles.

5) Stop carrying your cellphone. Delete store apps.

6) Stop rushing to the doctor for every little thing. If you're experiencing uncontrollable hemorrhage, organ failure, a bone break? Yes. Otherwise, learn traditional medicine, clean up your diet, and realize health begins in the kitchen, not the pharmacy.

7) Make noncompliance a core feature of your personality and mindset.

8) Stop talking to others about what you have.

9) Ensure you have enough arms, food, supplies to weather 6-12 months of total disruption.

10) build your network. Seek out like-minded individuals.

11) train.

12) get in the best physical shape you're capable of. And understand that you're capable of more than you believe.

For today's 🧵, I want to discuss perception, and how you don't place nearly enough emphasis on it.

The world doesn't function on truth or reality. It functions on people's perceptions of what they believe to be true, and what they believe to be real.

Politicians know this. The media knows this. It's why both lie constantly. They don't care about dealing with reality or communicating truth. They care about managing perceptions. Because they understand that most people cannot distinguish their perception of reality from reality. Nor are they capable of distinguishing their own conceptions from those given to them by others.

No one is immune to this. It's the nature of being human. We do not live in the real; we live in a false reality, presented to us by our mind. This is the allegory of Plato's Cave. This is Descartes' Evil Genius. This is the Hindu Maya Illusion. This is the Zhuangzi's "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly".

Your goal should be to always strive to more accurately align your perceptions with reality and truth. More importantly, your goal should be to develop the discernment necessary to determine how your perceptions differ both from reality and truth themselves, as well as the perceptions of those around you.

Once you have developed a fuller understanding that those you interact with are not seeing you, not seeing the truth, not seeing reality, but are seeing and reacting to their perceptions of those things, and once you begin to understand what powers are shaping and molding those perceptions, you'll be more successful in moving through the world.

Better still, you'll have developed a form of mental firewall, able to more easily identify those "facts" that stray too far from what you know to be true, because you've worked to align your own perceptions as closely as possible with Truth.

This is partly what is being discussed when the concept of discernment arises Biblically: the ability to see the world for what it truly is, as well as those in it.

Equally important -- because I've seen this play out more than once -- is that you must understand that, much like that line in the Matrix, people are not ready for the Truth. They do not want to be shown the Real. They want to cling to their delusions and beliefs. So much so, they will become physically violent at times if you try to force them to shed their incorrect perceptions and face reality.

This is because I wasn't being hyperbolic when I said that people live in a false world. Their entire reality is built from their incorrect perceptions, and reinforced daily by the world they live in. By their family, their friends, the media they consume. And here you come, kicking over their sandcastles and toppling their dominoes. You are literally untethering them from their reality.

That is a very scary prospect for most people, and one they will fight to avoid at all costs, even if it's readily apparent to you that them continuing on their path is causing them, and those around them, grievous harm. You can see this played out most blatantly with drug addicts, but it's no less true for anyone else who's lying to themselves. You cannot simply rip the rug out from under their feet and expect them to thank you.

People will change when the pain of changing is less than the pain of staying as they are. And, once changed, they will pass through.

Until then, point the way, by all means, but do not try to drag someone kicking and screaming to the Truth. It's a pointless task. On a somewhat related note, this is the basis for society deeming someone "crazy": that person's perceptions are so far removed from the norm that people cannot reconcile them either with what they believe themselves, or what they believe to be true of the world, and/or of the person.

In short, "crazy" is a perfect example of mob rule. If enough people agree you're crazy, you're crazy. Even if you yourself are certain your perceptions are the more correct ones.

Inexpensive negative test jammer detector successfully tested (credit to @Crete_N for the idea):

To inexpensively and easily test the presence of a wideband barrage jammer of the type typically employed by threat actors in South Africa, Mexico, and the USA, purchase and deploy the HelloBaby Audio Baby Monitor, model HB168 ().

These are currently available on Amazon for $19.

They operate on the 2.4GHz band, the one most likely to be jammed by threat actors, because this is the same band used by WiFi and Bluetooth, for things such as alarm systems and security cameras.

To use successfully: The product comes as two units: One designed to be placed in a baby's room (the transmitter), and one designed to be placed in the parents' room (or carried around the house with them; the receiver).

After successful pairing of the two units, any audio picked up by the transmitter will be played by the receiver's speaker.

We do not care about the audio functionality. You could disable the microphone on the transmitter if you wish (do NOT disable the speaker on the receiver).

Place the transmitter as far away as possible from the receiver while still on your property, and still within range of the receiver. You'll know when you're out of range, because the receiver will emit three loud beeps every 10 seconds that it can't get a signal from the transmitter.

This is, in fact, the feature we'll be taking advantage of.

You can, if you wish, place the transmitter outside, in a weatherproof box. However, be aware that it needs to be fed 5V @ 1A. This is accomplished using the supplied plug to USB A cable.

The receiver can be powered either via a similar cable, or AAA batteries.

Depending on how far away the transmitter is from the receiver, and how far both are from the jammer, your receiver will start beeping as soon as the jammer's signal at the receiver is more powerful than the transmitter's signal.

In initial testing, I was able to jam the transmitter only a few feet from the receiver, with the jammer about halfway between the two units.

I have not measured the power output of the transmitter, but I suspect it's 1W or less, which means, more or less, that as soon as the jammer's closer to the receiver than the transmitter is, you'll get an alert.

Be aware that this is a negative test solution, meaning that it will alert on any loss of signal. There is no guarantee that the loss of signal is due to a jammer, only that the receiver is no longer receiving a signal from the transmitter.

However, as an inexpensive and expedient solution, it fits the bill.

Enjoy!amazon.com/dp/B07YXPRRL1 @Crete_N It should be noted that the tested range for these jammers for 2.4GHz is roughly 20 feet, whereas these baby monitors claim a range of 1000 ft. Even if that's vastly overstated, you'll still have a few hundred feet of warning before your devices go out.

Interesting.

Those "professional" jammers that have been popping up in South Africa, Mexico, and now in the USA (see first pic)? They have a very significant signature: Look in the 2nd pic.

That bright wide-spectrum line in the waterfall is the jammer being turned on. It's too short for me to get a clear reading of the power, but after it settles down, the noise floor jumps from about -90dB to between -30 and -40dB, and all traffic vanishes as long as it's powered on.

You can clearly see the traffic before the jammer's powered up, the bright line indicating jammer being turned on, and the absence of signal until it's powered back down a few seconds later, at which point the traffic's visible again.

The spectrum displayed on the analyzer is the Bluetooth spectrum, for those who're curious.
Another interesting note about these jammers: They come with DIP switches to enable/disable individual frequency ranges for jamming, but nowhere in the supplied documentation is there a list of which switch corresponds to which frequency range.

I mentioned yesterday in another post that I was going to do a short 🧵on these today, so people can have a better understanding of their capabilities. They're prevalent in South Africa, have been found in use in Mexico, and are starting to be used by criminals and gangs here in the USA.

Let's dig in! (Bare with me, I'm doing this live). These jammers come in a wide range of configurations, capabilities, and price. Price most of all, as these things are not legal, and people are typically charging all the market will bear.

However, they are readily available online for those who know how to look for them. I won't be telling you where to buy them, but I'm sure any of you determined enough to get one will figure out how.

Doing some quick OSINT on the particular model pictured in k9_reaper's post, I find it offered for sale from multiple vendors.

I have seen prices anywhere from USD$250 to over a thousand, all for the same unit.

Let's focus on the highest-end one that seems to be out there, a.k.a., the one with the most antennas, a.k.a., the one that can block the most frequencies. This is a 27-antenna model that runs about USD$550:

Today's 🧵is here! It's the final part of the tactical tablet/digital burst RF comms guide!

Step 7: Putting it all together

Back in Step 4, we installed some software on the tablets, including andFLmsg. Now, we’re going to use it. If you have two tablets and two radios, all properly configured, this is easy. Otherwise, you’ll need to find someone else with an identically-configured radio connected to a device running andFLmsg in order to test your send and receive capabilities.

For the purpose of this guide, we’ll assume you have two identically configured tablets and radios. Connect each radio to a tablet using a K1 data cable. Turn on each radio, with the volume about ¾ of the way up. Set the first radio’s first frequency to 145.500, and the second frequency to 146.500. For the second radio, set the first frequency to 146.500, and the second to 145.500. Effectively, the reverse of the first radio. Each radio will send on a different frequency. Because we turned on TDRin the previous step, both radios will be able to receive on both frequencies. Make sure the first frequency is selected on both radios.

Now turn on both tablets, and start up andFLmsg. The first time you start it, it will ask you a bunch of questions regarding permissions. You should choose “only while using the app” for all of them. Denying any of them will cause the app to quit. It will then ask you about a folder to use. Choosing “USE DEFAULT” should be fine. You should now see a screen similar to this: This is the screen you’ll send messages from. If you touch the line on the lower part of the screen, a keyboard will appear onscreen, and you can type your message. When you hit “SEND TEXT” in the lower right corner, your message will be transmitted over the frequency the connected radio is set to.

If you swipe right, you’ll see the screen any received messages will appear on. It should look like this:

Today's 🧵 is here!

Step 5: Physical radio preparation

Now that that tablet is prepped for use, it’s time to prep the radio. Just like with the tablet, we’ll start with physical preparation. On Baofeng radios, there is a very bright, multicolor LED present between the volume knob and antenna: While use of this LED can be partially disabled in software, it will still occasionally light up. This can be extremely problematic in the field, particularly at night. While some people are content with using electrical tape, 100MPH tape, or similar to mask off the light, we’re going to take a bit more permanent approach.

While I’d enjoy nothing more than to remove the LED entirely, after researching this, it turns out it’s rather annoying to accomplish, and also compromises the watertight case seal. Instead, I’m going to recommend a two-pronged approach: grinding and painting.

Grinding down the dome of the LED accomplishes two things: First, it changes the shape of the LED, which changes the light emitting characteristics, making it less omnidirectionally radiative. It also lowers the LED to a point at or below the surrounding plastic.

Second, it roughs up the surface of the LED. This further changes the light emitting characteristics of the LED, diffusing the light being emitted. It also provides a better surface to which paint may adhere.

By using a Dremel with a small grinding attachment, you can easily and quickly grind down the dome. Be careful not to grind down so far that you expose the diode itself (the two metal legs embedded in the acrylic). We’re just trying to deform the dome and rough it up. Just going to the same level as the top of the surrounding bevel should suffice. When you’re done, it should look like this:

Time for today's 🧵!

Step 4: Installing apps

In order to install apps on this tablet, we’re going to sideload them. Strictly speaking, this means transferring them onto the tablet from another device rather than using the common method of installing them over a network from the app store.

To do this, we’ll need a micro-SD card. I’m partial to SanDisk Ultra cards, but anything that the device will read will work. To begin the process, you’ll once again need to remove the tablet from the case, in order to access the SD card slot. Do so, and insert your SD card. Be sure to push it in until there’s a faint click, and the card sits flush inside the slot. You may need to use a fingernail or knife blade.

If it’s new, you should see the a small icon in the upper left of the screen, near the time display. Stroke the screen down from the top, and you should see a notification about the card, with a “Tap to set up” option: Tap it, and you should see this:

Today's 🧵: Step 3: Post-setup configuration

Now that we’ve got the tablet to a basic level of functionality, let’s start tweaking the settings to make sense. Open the Android Settings app by clicking on the gear icon in the lower right corner of the screen. You should see a menu that looks like this: First, go into “Network & Internet” and ensure WiFi is off. Thanks to the way we’re doing this, Bluetooth is also off, even though it’s not shown here. If you want, you can verify this from the top pull-down menu.

It's time again! Step 2 of my guide to setting up a tactical tablet for digital burst RF comms! A 🧵. This one is a shorter section. But there are still 5 to go, and a few of them are long.

Step 2: Initial operating system (OS) setup

Hold the power button in to power on the tablet. Once on, you should see a screen similar to this: Once it’s finished booting, you’ll see this screen. Go ahead and click the “START” button, assuming the language setting is as you want it:

Alright, y'all. Thank you for your patience. It's finally time: the guide to setting up a tactical tablet for digital burst comms is complete.

I will be posting a 🧵, one per day, for each of the seven sections of the document. Some are longer than others, but all are valuable, and should be read in order.

The document will also be posted, likely in parts, over at . I'll let y'all know when they hit.

With that, let's get on with the show! Here's Section 1:

How to set up an Android tablet for use in the field for burst digital RF communications
By 4nt1p4tt3rn

I’m going to walk you through the steps necessary to securely configure an Android tablet for field use, so you can take advantage of andFLmsg to send burst digital RF comms over an inexpensive radio such as the Baofeng UV-5R.
The tablet I’ve chosen for this project is NOVOJOY 7” Tablet with Case from Amazon (). This tablet offers several attractive benefits for our purposes:
a. It’s inexpensive, coming in at $40 at the time I’m writing this
b. It comes with a case and cover, to protect the tablet in the field
c. It has an SD card slot, for easy sideloading of apps (we will not be using networking on this device, or associating it or any apps with any account)
d. It has an easy-opening shell.
One caveat on these tablets: They will drain their charge if not powered down (not just put to sleep) in about a week. So, always make sure you’re going into the field with fully-charged equipment.americanpartisan.org
amazon.com/gp/product/B0B… While these instructions will work for pretty much any recent tablet or phone (though I very, very strongly recommend against using a phone in the field, due to signals security (SIGSEC) considerations), this guide will be specific to this tablet, running Android 11. We will not be modifying the OS or flashing a new one, because this tablet will never be associated with any account, nor will any apps on it. Neither will it ever be connected to any network.

Let’s start with unboxing the tablet. This is the box for it:

Is my phone listening to me and delivering ads based on what it hears?

A thread. We've all had that experience: We discuss something highly unusual or out of the ordinary -- something we have never previously mentioned -- with someone within earshot of a phone. For the next day or so, you suddenly see targeted ads related to that topic.

What gives?

For today's 🧵, I want to talk a little bit about satellite imagery. That picture you see there is taken from a NYT article on the Israel/Hamas conflict (). It was published Dec 12, 2023.nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Today's 🧵is going to be a reference to many of the previous threads I've done, so everyone can have a handy way to go back to each of them.

Ready? Let's go. Vehicle telematics:
Ring doorbell cameras:
Ways you're vulnerable you may not have thought of:
How to identify industrial control systems online:

https://twitter.com/4nt1p4tt3rn/status/1737125812585791574

https://twitter.com/4nt1p4tt3rn/status/1742200318933319972

https://twitter.com/4nt1p4tt3rn/status/1744363872255881562

https://twitter.com/4nt1p4tt3rn/status/1734957056233210175

Drone update: Last week, I bought a very cheap (~$30) camera drone, with several goals in mind:

1) get used to flying a drone
2) test various jamming techniques
3) evaluate effectiveness for cheap aerial forward surveillance

This is the drone I bought: temu.com/multi-camera-d… Today, even though it's intermittently rainy and a bit windy, I decided to test this thing out. Mind you, I've never flown a drone before. But given their use on the battlefield, and Don Shift's book, Poor Man's Air Force (), even though Iamazon.com/Poor-Mans-Air-…

Today's 🧵: Other people's devices.

So, you've done the work, you've minimized your exposure by reducing or eliminating your use of "smart" devices, you've ditched the phone, you drive an older vehicle, you're effectively RF dark at all times.

You're good, right? Wrong. You are constantly surrounded by other people's devices. You may not carry a phone, but everyone around you does, and they all have cameras and microphones.

All your neighbors have networked doorbell and security cameras.

You're surrounded by newer vehicles that have