A network map exercise consists of creating a graphical representation of the links between you and the people in your network in order to critically examine those links. This exercise is designed to sharpen your ability to make informed and critical choices about the people you associate with, with the ultimate goal of making your network more resilient to infiltration attempts.
A core idea of this exercise is to help you think not just at the level of your affinity groups, but at a more global level that includes people you don't know well, and may even include people you don't really know at all. It works by asking yourself a series of structured questions that reveal your level of security with all the people in your network, from which you draw a map that distinguishes the people you trust from the people you would like to know more about. It is designed to be done in times of relative calm.
For instructions on how to do this, see Stop hunting sheep: a guide to creating safer networks. Such a network map would be invaluable to an adversary — it is essentially what they construct during network mapping — so it should be burned immediately after use.
Techniques addressed by this mitigation
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Infiltrators | You can conduct a network map exercise to make your network more resilient to infiltration attempts. | |
| Informants | You can conduct a network map exercise to help ensure your network does not place trust in people who could be or become informants. | |
| Network mapping | An adversary can map a network by using infiltrators and informants to monitor the network: infiltrators and informants build credentials through association, build social profiles of people in the network, find pressure points to instigate interpersonal and political conflict, and entrap people. To mitigate this, you can conduct a network map exercise to make your network more resilient to infiltration attempts and help ensure it does not place trust in people who could be or become informants. | |
| Targeted digital surveillance | ||
| Physical access | An adversary could physically access your digital devices through an infiltrator or informant. To mitigate this, you can conduct a network map exercise to help you decide who you trust to access your digital devices. | |