Network mapping

Network mapping is the activity of gaining insight into the organization and social connections of a given network. It allows individuals to be singled out for extra scrutiny, arrest, or recruitment as informants.

The State very frequently uses social media friends lists (a form of open-source intelligence) for network mapping because they do not require a warrant or legal authorization.

Used in tactics: Incrimination

Mitigations

NameDescription
Anonymous phones

Anonymous phones, since they are not tied to their owners' identities, can limit the ability of an adversary to achieve network mapping.

Avoiding self-incrimination

Self-incrimination not only endangers the individual, but also the rest of their network. If possible, refusing to provide an adversary with your identity, photographs, fingerprints, or DNA samples can limit their ability to perform network mapping.

Compartmentalization

By compartmentalizing your different identities (or projects), you can limit the ability of an adversary to achieve network mapping.

Digital best practices

Social networks can be obscured by limiting digital communications to end-to-end encrypted messaging on encrypted devices.

Fake ID

Using a fake ID in the event of an ID check can protect against network mapping.

Need-to-know principle

Gossip that could be used for network mapping should be avoided.

Network map exercise

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.

Used in repressive operations

NameDescription
Mauvaises intentions

To prove that the accused comrades knew each other and were therefore likely accomplices, the investigators used several clues[1]:

  • They were arrested at the same demonstrations
  • They called each other on the phone regularly
  • They lived in the same place for long periods of time, as shown by their phone records