Gathering & Flailing

Too many things all at once ...

Every spring when I was a boy we'd build a pile of loose hay at the base of the ladder to the hay loft in our barn. When barn kittens reach about six weeks old they start getting adventuresome and it's only a matter of time before one takes a tumble. The initial innovator will soon by followed by the rest of the litter, but they lack the strength to climb back up on their own until about twelve weeks. It falls to young boys to climb the ladder using one arm, while trying to hold multiple half wild bundles of fur with the other. The scratches were just part of the job.

A week ago I published The Gathering and the very next day I got involved in an Actual Incident Response. I set the timer on this article to post it at 0700 instead of the usual 0800 – because that's the start time for the trial in Rauhauser v. McGibney, my precedent setting 1^st Amendment case in Texas. Just as when I was a boy, lots of incidental scratches have happened along the way.

Attention Conservation Notice:

What should come next in The Online Operations Kill Chain is Coordination & Planning. Instead I've got this armload of squirming wildcats and the world has doubled down on what was already a target rich environment. I have no idea what I'm doing next, but maybe writing this will bring some clarity. So … no promises on quality or applicability on this one.

Gathering Overload:

The Incident Response is trundling along, the company that's getting spoofed isn't going to listen to me, but I'm the only game in town. I just gave a Dropbox folder to a reporter. Sucks to be them. It was interesting to see how the attack shaped up, I'm probably going to see if I can reproduce the effects on a domain I control. You can blue team by just reading about defensive measures, but there's nothing like having a go at an attack to really clarify things.

There's an older, less energetic IR that's been like a fluorescent bulb going bad, periodically flickering on and demanding more attention. The best farm metaphor there is dealing with rats – you periodically have to get a shovel, whistle for the dog, and start turning over things in the barn yard. Black labs are enthusiastic ratters. They're not good at it like a terrier, but they quickly get in the spirit of things. This one makes me wish I had a bite prone dog and the perp close at hand. Criminal is bad, being cocky while criming at a distance invites innovation.

The Bigger Picture:

Charles Johnson attempted to connect with me on LinkedIn back in August of 2022. Not knowing what he wanted, I quietly demurred. Since he's gone public on his relationship with FBI whistleblower Johnathon Buma as well as his recruitment of Peter Thiel for CHS duty, I would be remiss if I didn't at least poke around a bit. I accepted the connection request and I've attended two of his Twitter Spaces. And there are half a dozen people off in a chat room somewhere trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Buma had trouble with the New York FBI field office and then later with Los Angeles. My civil case in Texas was filed by an FBI informant who was trying to force me to appear in Dallas. Things have leaked over the years, it's clear he has something to do with the same agents in Detroit that ran the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping sting, and we now know that the FBI provider the funding for him to purchase @YourAnonNews back in 2012. If there IS about to be some sort of housecleaning within the FBI I'd like to see my problem there addressed at the same time.

Perhaps I'll come to regret sticking my head up, but today it seems like the right thing to do. I gave my attorney a copy of my most recent OIG complaint against the Dallas FBI field office and if it gets added to that case I will make it available here.

Administrivia:

This Substack doesn't have a subscription option and I don't know that it ever will. The people who most need this sort of guidance are either unable to pay, or unwilling to have the exposure. When I started I put up an ask for enough gear to do a Qubes workstation. That need has been covered, but I set it up and tore it down in the same afternoon. There are simply not enough hours in the day for me to adapt to an unfamiliar operating environment with all the balls I have to keep in the air. I'll come back to this during the holidays, assuming things actually do slow down.

I think the next piece of kit that makes sense would be an older Dell Precision laptop. There are Xeon models with 32GB that are under $300. The ancient Toshiba I've been using is showing signs of giving up for good. A machine like this could run Qubes and it would provide a tolerable mobile environment. I've hardly left the house since the pandemic started, but I get the feeling that 2024 is going to present challenges that will demand showing up in person, and I hate being cut off from my stuff when things are this busy.

Conclusion:

Coordination & Planning are precursors to actually trying to set up camp in an operating environment. I have some thoughts on that as I've watched the requirements grow ever more complex. Services that don't handle money are now using KYC as stern as the money transmission businesses. The age of the lone gun operator is drawing to a close, and in its place you'll need to have some sort of foothold available, a group of associates that will put a new persona in a workable context without asking too many questions.

The case in Texas was won 93 minutes after I retained Jeff Dorrell, clear back in March of 2014. The rest of the time has been the plaintiff trying to avoid consequences. Theoretically what's happened today is the beginning of the end, but I've been wrong about that a number of times in the past. A post trial ruling is liable to take until early 2024, but at least I'll get a read on things from my attorney.