Informants

Contents

No Trace Project > Threat Library > Techniques > Informants

Contents

An informant (or snitch) is someone from inside a group or network recruited by an adversary to provide information on the group or network.

An adversary can use different strategies to recruit an informant:

An adversary can use an informant to gather evidence or to map a network.

See the “Infiltrators and informants” topic.

Used in tactics: Incrimination

Mitigations

NameDescription
Attack

You can attack informants when uncovered or years later to discourage others from becoming informants.

Background checks

You can perform background checks to help ensure that someone in your network is not an informant.

Need-to-know principle

You can apply the need-to-know principle to limit the information a potential informant can obtain about your involvement in actions (if an informant isn't involved in an action, they shouldn't know who is involved even if it's their own roommate).

Network map exercise

You can conduct a network map exercise to help ensure your network does not place trust in people who could be or become informants.

Prisoner support

You can support prisoners from your networks: beyond the ethical imperative of this support, people are less likely to turn informant if they feel supported and connected to the movements for which they risked their freedom.

Used in repressive operations

NameDescription
2011-2013 case against Jeremy Hammond

In June 2011, investigators recruited an associate of Jeremy Hammond, Sabu, as an informant[1]. For several months, Sabu helped investigators build a case against Jeremy Hammond. In exchange for their collaboration Sabu received a lenient sentence: after having spent 7 months in prison (for a bail violation), they were sentenced to time served[2].

Sabu knew Jeremy Hammond's online persona but did not know his real life identity. To find out Jeremy Hammond's real life identity, investigators used information that he had shared with Sabu in online chats, including that[3]:

  • He had been arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention, had spent time in a federal prison and in a county jail, and was currently on probation. Investigators were able to verify all of this using police files.
  • Comrades of his had been arrested at a specific protest. Investigators were able to verify that an “associate” of Jeremy Hammond had attended the protest.
  • He practiced dumpster-diving. Investigators saw him getting food from dumpsters during a physical surveillance operation.
Case against Marius Mason

The main evidence against Marius Mason was provided to investigators by his former husband, Frank Ambrose, who had participated in some of the actions with him[4]. Frank Ambrose became an informant after his arrest in 2007 (which was triggered by him throwing incriminating material in a garbage can)[5]. For several months, the snitch collaborated extensively with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), secretly recording 178 phone conversations and face-to-face meetings, and providing information on 15 people[6].