Careful action planning | No Trace Project

Contents

Description
Techniques addressed by this mitigation

Contents

Description
Techniques addressed by this mitigation

When planning an action, careful action planning is the sensible development of the action plan. It follows reconnaissance.

Careful action planning must make clear the role of each person involved in the action and how their tasks relate to those of others.

For example, what is the best route to and from the action site, and how long will you be at the site, given the expected timing of the adversary's response? Or, what on your escape route could interfere with a pursuit (e.g., will the adversary need to get out of their vehicle to follow on foot)? Creating an action plan is a form of threat modeling — what could go wrong, what mitigations will you implement, and how? For example, how will you conduct anti-surveillance prior to the action meeting point?

Techniques addressed by this mitigation

Name		Description
Detection dogs		If you think that detection dogs can be deployed after an action, you can plan to take measures when leaving the action site. For example, you can plan to cross bodies of water to break the scent trail that the dogs are following, or plan to use pepper spray on the trail to disrupt the sense of smell of the dogs.
Forensics
	Arson	An adversary can tie actions together if accelerants from the same sources are used in all of them. To mitigate this, you can avoid reusing accelerants from the same source in different actions.
	DNA	An adversary can use DNA forensics to collect DNA at an action site. To mitigate this, you can carefully plan the action to minimize DNA traces at the action site. For example, you can: Secure your hair under a hat. If you have to cut a fence, cut any fence holes large enough to pass through without touching the fence. Ensure that surfaces at the action site are not touched if they do not need to be, and that surfaces that need to be interacted with (such as a door handle) are touched by someone following DNA minimization protocols. Ensure that any destructive device left at the site (e.g. an incendary device with a delay) has worked as expected in tests conducted under similar conditions (temperature, etc.). The point of this is to make sure that the device will not be recovered intact by an adversary. Ensure that nothing is accidentally left behind such as a bag, tool, or anything that falls out of a pocket.
	Fingerprints	An adversary can use fingerprint forensics to collect and analyze fingerprints at an action site. To mitigate this, you can carefully plan the action so that any tools you plan to use during the action are free of fingerprints in case you lose them or have to discard them in a location where they can be recovered by an adversary.
	Trace evidence	An adversary can use trace evidence to link objects to an action site. To mitigate this, you can carefully plan the action so that after the action you dispose of any tools or clothing you used during the action.
Increased police presence		You can carefully plan an action to mitigate the risk of an increased police presence at the action site. For example: You can conduct a thorough reconnaissance of the action site and prepare a good escape plan. If you are planning to carry out arson, you can use an incendiary device with a delay so that the device is not activated until after you have left the action site. You can take advantage of the fact that an increased police presence in one place means the possibility of a decreased police presence elsewhere.
Mass surveillance
	Civilian snitches	Civilians can observe you during actions and report their observations to an adversary. To mitigate this, you can carry out actions at night or in areas with minimal foot traffic to minimize witnesses, and use a lookout to report the presence of any witnesses as soon as they are noticed. Beware of balconies and windows overlooking the scene.
Police patrols		You can carefully plan an action to take into account the risk of routine police patrols interfering with the action, a risk that is always present, except perhaps in remote areas.