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 | A critical examination of the links in your network can make it more resilient to infiltration attempts. | |
| Informants | A critical examination of the links in your network can be a safeguard against placing your trust in people who could become informants. | |
| Network mapping | As long as they avoid being routed out of networks, infiltrators and informants end up building credentials through association, building intensive social profiles of everyone in the network, finding pressure points to instigate interpersonal and political conflict, entrapping people, and monitoring our daily lives, ultimately helping an adversary achieve network mapping. A critical examination of the links in your network, by protecting against infiltrators and informants, can protect against network mapping. | |
| Targeted digital surveillance | ||
| Physical access | A critical examination of the links in your network can help you decide who to allow to use your devices based on established trust. | |