About the Threat Library

No Trace Project > Threat Library > About the Threat Library

No matter what, we make and will continue to make mistakes in the battle against such strong oppressive mechanisms. Mistakes that will always “cost” more compared to the cops' mistakes which are “absorbed”. We must weigh the situations again and ensure that the mistakes which happened once simply can not happen again. We must study and appreciate the accumulated experience of so many years and, taking into account the tendency to prepare for the battles which already took place and not for those that will come, let's be prepared and may luck be on our side…

— anarchist comrades from Greece, in a text detailing the surveillance that led to their arrest, 2013

Threat modeling

Threat modeling is a process by which you identify potential threats posed by your adversaries so that you can then identify and prioritize the mitigations you can take to address those threats. The list of threats and their associated risks is called a threat model.

If you carry out subversive actions or projects, you're probably already used to thinking about how to minimize the risk posed by various threats. Threat modeling formalizes this thought process to make it more organized and systematic.

The Threat Library

The Threat Library is a tool developed by the No Trace Project to help anarchists and other rebels use threat modeling in their actions and projects. The Threat Library uses some technical terms that you'll want to become familiar with:

• An adversary is an entity that wants to prevent you from achieving your goals, from carrying out your actions and projects. Typically your adversary is the State, but depending on your context you may have other adversaries (e.g., fascist groups).
• A technique (or threat) is something an adversary does to prevent you from achieving your goals.
• A mitigation is something you do to lower the risk of a technique being successful.
• A tactic is an adversary's goal when using a technique. In the Threat Library, we organize techniques into three tactics: deterrence, incrimination and arrest.
• A repressive operation is a real instance of repression from an adversary against anarchists or other rebels.
• An action or project is what you want to accomplish: participate in a riot, publish subversive literature, smash something, burn something…

The Threat Library contains a lot of information on State repressive techniques. This can have a paralyzing effect by making the State seem all-powerful. The State is not all-powerful^[1]. The intent of the Threat Library is neither to minimize nor exaggerate the State's capabilities, but rather to understand its options and how those options are used in different contexts.

Limitations

The Threat Library is by design a very technical approach to anti-repression. Threat modeling is done at the level of actions, and thus does not attempt to contribute to the social question, how to escape the enclosure that repression seeks, how to intervene in social tensions, and so on. Struggles for freedom are not primarily a technical matter, but a social one, and have psychological and emotional effects. As much as possible, we encourage you to take time before, during and after an action to discuss with all the people involved and to make sure that everyone's emotional needs are taken into account.

The Threat Library attempts to be as comprehensive as possible in covering the threats that anarchists and other rebels may face, but it is intended to grow over time and will never be complete. This is especially true as adversaries may evolve with new and unforeseen techniques. To avoid a false sense of security from using the Threat Library, we encourage you to use other sources of knowledge, to remain critical, and to always consider your personal context when making important decisions.