OpSec tips every prepper needs to know

The role of Operational Security (also known simply as OpSec in the military services) is extremely important. It is necessary not to tell anyone any information about your strategies or plans. If the enemy (whoever that may be) knows something about your plan, he can destroy it or use this knowledge as an advantage as a result of which you will probably lose the battle.

Even if you are not serving in the military there is a chance that you have some enemies. Only 1-2% of society are trying to prepare themselves for any emergency situation. The other 98-99% of people don’t care about survival plans now, but if they face a critical situation they will cry and ask for help anyone who may be well-prepared. So, if such people find out that you have some survival goods, they will do anything to get it from you.

This can cause you many troubles, especially in the case, if you decide not to help these people. People may act recklessly in hard times and if you don’t help them, they can come back to you with weapons. Thus, you need to protect yourself. You should have your Operational Security (OpSec) secrets for this.  

Top 10 OpSec tips

• Don’t share your plans with others. Many people spoil their plans and compromise OpSec by sharing them with their friends. Even if it is necessary to recruit other people to make your plan effective you should be careful. There are situations when people say they don’t want to be involved in your plan if you offer it to them, but if these people face hard times, they will come to you asking for help. Such friends can become the worst enemies.
• Make your children silent. Kids aren’t the best keepers of secrets. Sometimes your children are involved in your survival plans and they know many details. Make sure they won’t tell their friends, ask them to keep this secret. The best way is to create a story and offer your kids to tell it to their friends and if they do that you can reward them for being good secret keepers.
• Don’t make your house look like a fortification. If you decide to make your house well-prepared for any survival situation it may be very helpful, but don’t make your house similar to a fortification. If you want to make a huge cement or stone wall that will protect your home, it will become obvious for everyone that you are trying to be prepared for an attack. Choose something that won’t be so noticeable, for example, a green fence. Remember all these methods of defense are not created for saving your life, they can only help you to earn some time in a critical situation.
• Hide your supplies well. It happens that some friends or neighbors can come to our homes for some reason. And just imagine what if a person comes to your house and notices boxes with meals and some other stocked supplies? This person will probably understand why you need all these things. Choose a good place in your house where you can hide your supplies, this place should be hidden from guests’ eyes. Using a basement may be very helpful. But even if you’re living in a house that doesn’t have a basement just try to stay creative: use unusual locations like a spot under the sink.
• Be careful with too many orders. There is the possibility that you are ordering too many items that you may need. In this case, a courier will come to your pretty often and people can notice it and have some questions. Don’t order everything at one time, do it little by little, so that people won’t notice anything strange. If you don’t like buying things online, you should be careful with buying too many items in the store as well. For example, if you come to your house and start to unload your car with tons of food and different supplies, then your neighbors will be very interested. If for any reason you need to buy everything at one time then just cover your supplies using a tarp, park your automobile in the garage and take these supplies when no one sees it.

• Don’t differ from others much. It is really important to look normal, just like other families in an emergency situation. If your neighbors are losing weight because of the lack of food, you can’t allow yourself to gain weight, as it will show that you have extra food. If the grid is down but you have lights in your house people will understand that you have emergency power sources. Try to make people think that you are dealing with the same problems as they are.
• Try not to meet people too often. The fewer people see you the less they think and talk about you. You will need to go outside sometimes for sure but still, you should try to do it not too often. Try to stay inside or go outside when no one is watching, it may protect you from different problems that people may cause.
• Sign up for government help. In a critical situation, such agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others will help citizens. So, sign up for government assistance, because if you won’t do this then you will be mentioned as a person who doesn’t need any help. In this case, even if your neighbors won’t understand it, the government will realize that it is suspicious that someone doesn’t need assistance during an emergency. Government workers can simply come to your house to look at your situation and find out that you have stocked many supplies.
• Don’t use light obviously. If neighbors see a light in your windows although the electricity is down in the whole city, they will understand that you have an emergency power source. If it is impossible to regulate light in a way that it will look like a light from a candle, then use black curtains for your windows. Remember that loud TV can also show your neighbors that you have something that they don’t.

Remember that your security is paramount

For the sake of OpSec it is necessary to do everything for not letting others know anything about your survival plans. If for any reason your actions are noticeable then make up a good cover story. For example, if you decide to drill a well you can tell your neighbors that you want to be able to water your grass without any restrictions. If there are many vegetables that are growing in your garden just tell them that you hate GMO products.

No matter what you are doing just make up a story that doesn’t sound like a fairy tale and don’t put yourself in trouble by not being careful. For example, if you say to your neighbors that you need vegetables in your garden because you don’t want to buy GMO products and then you are telling them about some GMO vegetables that you bought somewhere it will create questions in people’s minds. Just create believable stories and follow them.

Of course, to be able to do such things you should be good at acting. Remember that it is better to act telling people a fictional story explaining what you’re doing than denying something without any kind of explanation. When human beings have no idea, what’s going on they start to think too much which may lead to troubles for you. But if you give them a believable answer, they won’t think that your situation is suspicious anymore.

Remember, your OpSec is paramount!