(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.)
TACTICS FOR DELIVERING A DROP
To place a drop without someone noticing that is what you are doing takes practice. You will need to practice like mentioned prior, as sleight of hand skill goes a long way to placing a drop. Gently setting a rolled-up newspaper into a trash can where another person picks it up just walking by might work when everyone’s head is buried in their phones, but certainly will get you found out if someone is observing you. Here are some cardinal rules for prioritizing drop tactics, if you cannot perform the former, adhere to the latter:
1.) No witnesses, large area.
a. Easy to conceal the drop, with a wide area to avoid a “brute force discovery”.
b. Allows a custom selection of drop locations, with minimal risk of being discovered (both parties).
2.) No witnesses, smaller area.
a. Easy to conceal the drop, but a higher risk of “brute force discovery” (think tearing apart a bedroom).
b. Smaller spaces only have so many places to hide something.
c. Camouflage must be heavily adhered to.
d. Being an are where witnesses are not usually present, using tactics like prying the edge of a duct vent or piece of wood molding can be used effectively. Think of a public bathroom, ever see things pried or ripped apart? This is often because criminals use this tactic too to hide drugs, so use discretion on the location that you choose.
3.) Witnesses, large area.
a. Drop must be tactfully placed, and reasonably camouflaged
b. Timing is important when depositing. If you place something when everyone is “busy” doing something (like during rush hour traffic or when a light changes on the crosswalk), they are much less likely to notice the placement action.
c. The more people, the more eyes…and hence the more tactfully the drop must be placed.
d. Larger area allows more space between you and others, use foliage and structure to your advantage to momentarily break the line of sight when making a drop.
e. Make your pause to deposit seem intentional. 15 minutes cloud gazing will calm the soul (and allow you to carefully place that USB drive under the lip of the bench you are sitting on).
4.) Witnesses, smaller area.
a. Drop must be very tactfully placed, and well camouflaged
b. Timing is important when depositing, but it is likely that you cannot hide something efficiently.
c. This scenario is where acting and “dressing the part” come into play. Hiding in plain sight is a must in this scenario, and both the drop and retrieve must be seamless.
d. Some tactful depositing roles could be:
d.i. A bricklayer filling in some broken mortar as a “building restoration volunteer” (and depositing a drop while doing the job.
d.ii. Tending to a semi-public space landscape (you can volunteer for these things anyway!) and placing drops in bushes during your pruning or under rocks when weeding.
d.iii. A window washer or graffiti cleaner that “accidentally” leaves a marked rag or brush behind. Sometime a good person will notice and return it immediately. Gauge your timing.
d.iv. Trash collectors, garbage attendants, trash pickers…all great opportunities to handle things nobody wants to touch and plan for your easy collection of drops.
e. In most cases, volunteering for things will open doors for you to deposit drops with practically zero suspicion. Depending on the viewability of the drop and retrieve, you will have to gauge your involvement with these type of activities as a requirement.
TIP: If for some reason you do retrieve the drop but notice that someone saw you, it may be in your best interest to destroy the drop and have it re-submitted. Depending on the nature of the drop, it could implicate you or worse get you killed. Gauge your surroundings very carefully.
PRO TIP: If you need a further look around to observe surroundings, don’t just look over your shoulder suspiciously like your head is a turret…do something natural. Look confused like you’re lost, get a tiny bit frustrated over something trivial like tripping on the curb, or even a touch angry like something didn’t go your way (rip a bag, drop a bottle, etc.). This is acting, if people believe you to be acting normal, you can hide something right under their noses…just don’t overdo it.
RETRIEVING A PHYSICAL DROP:
In order to gain access to the dropped information, you will have to remove all suspicion by the surrounding audience. If you look like a rich banker rifling through a garbage can, people will know you are looking for something…which is too “out of place”. As mentioned above for placing a drop, put yourself into the role of the person that needs to pick up the drop without suspicion. For instance, in areas with witnesses where stealth would be difficult:
A reflective vest with a garbage picker and bag walking around a park collecting garbage would not seem out of place. You would be helping clean your community and collecting your drop simultaneously…and nobody would think anything of it.
“Clean up” the edges of messy grout on a wall where a “careless brick layer” put too much on (referencing drop placement above).
While wearing a vest or uniform, inspecting a trashcan, and maybe replacing a bag (while collecting a drop) would be a reasonable action (wear gloves!).
Removal of posters from a common wall space (you will have to do some work to retrieve because you must play the part and do a good job to remove not just the target poster).
The key is that your lift of the drop should be fluid. Either nobody should see you do it, or everyone should see you do it as if you were supposed to do it (like garbage cleanup or similar).
When utilizing a drop point or cache multiple times, the risk of you or it being found goes up the more it is used. Having secure and non-repeatable access to the point is critical. You do not want a footpath in the snow or cow trail in the grass leading people to where you have been going.
Be mindful of touched surfaces…believe it or not, you can tell which brass knob gets used more than others around it just from the finish. Use this knowledge when touching/moving bricks, metal, or anything else that may leave a sign of wear or polish. If it looks used, other people will know to use it.
CONCLUSION
The most important point boils down to this…if everyone can know your business, how is it still your business. These methods are great ways to safeguard security and safety in uncertain times. In an age where electronic and phone surveillance has become commonplace, protecting the distribution and access to private information is even more important. Every aspect of what I have written can be adapted to the depth of your needs and is limited only by your creativity.
These skills and methods are just as effective at keeping a birthday party secret as they are from keeping the hypothetical gestapo from knowing your meeting location or list of attendees/members. If someone does not know how you are communicating and with whom, it is harder to intercept. Practice, and having friends and family in this mindset to expect the occasional code or drop, will give you the best shot at concealing communications. The situation in our country can change in an instant, and I would love for as many of you as possible to be informed about how to communicate securely with each other. Stay safe, and God bless!