Not quite.
Meso is a community and the thing that makes a community flourish/persish is the members. We look out for our own, so guys posting threads like the OP are an attempt to educate and protect
OUR MEMBERS. No true Meso vet gives 2 flying fucks about sources, it's there job to insulate their own ass. The community is vigilant to protect our guys from LE, scamming sources, and potentially dangerous vendors. Truth be told if you ask any veteran contributor to this community they would just as soon run all these fucking sources off, and keep the underground the vision it was intended to be, a place to REVIEW sources and share experiences.
So..on the topic of education and harm reduction.
Here are my suggestions for what they are worth:
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Personal security. If you don't know what the terms VPN, TOR, PGP encryption mean and have a secure email hosted offshore stop what you are doing....spend 2 weeks educating yourself and make PERSEC your #1 priority while operating on the web. Set your VPN and TOR up
before you register your anonymous email, don't pay with any type of account connected to your personal information ie. credit/debit card. When sending emails the best policy is to leave subject lines blank, and still manually encrypt your message in a stand alone program and copy-paste it into your email provider, this way you are not relying soley on the security of the provider. You should always make sure your private key is stored on a removable storage device like a thumb drive and kept in a secure place.
DO NOT LEAVE your private key stored anywhere on your device but especially not just shuffled in with your public key and keychain. Learn what metadata is attached your photos and how metadata could potentially lead to your front door, then make a practice of religiously strippin it before you post anything. Be aware of your surroundings in photos, many landmarks are easily distinguishable. Never post any photo that has been shared on any other social media (FB,instagram,vine, etc.) and if you want to be certain never post any picture of a set of pictures, even if it's not identical the pics can likely be easily cross referenced with a simple reverse image lookup.
-Payment/Shipping. Only pay for WU/MG with cash, you don't need ID if it's under a preset limit, last time I checked you could send $899 WU without ID and just scribble "signature". As far as shipping, don't use a fake name, it will raise more red flags than just rec'g a package like any other day. If you don't feel comfortable shipping to your real name, use a previous tenant, or ship to another location like the vacant summer home around the corner. The most secure shipping/rec'g method is stick to domestic, waive signature. Make sure you are clear on the terms of shipping and discuss them prior to ordering, if the sig is waived and someone shows up at your/receiver's door, it's very easy to just take a look at that package mutter something about "well I didn't order anything" and then refuse it stating you don't recognize the return address. If the carrier is persistent with you rec'g slam the door in their face, it's perfectly normal to refuse a package under any circumstances.
-Keep a clean house. No need to have shipping boxes laying around the house with address on them, peel the label off destroy it and get that shit out. Don't throw "sensitive" material in your personal trash, if it can't be shredded, burned, or flushed bag it up separate and throw it in a dumpster or business trashcan off of your daily route. Don't leave WU/MG payment receipts, rec'r names, orders, or any other sensitive material around or discarded intact...burn it, shred it, soak it in water.
-Operations Security. If you handle/store your information securely, and transmission of said information is established, you have the infrastructure for communications security. However, you will still need to learn/adapt some practices to maintain security. Think not only of yourself but how your actions could affect others around you, self-regulate as well as take it upon yourself to bust down your brothers if they are slipping. Say vigilant boys. If you are reading this and thinking "damn TEK is paranoid", I will leave you with this, I don't have a care in the world, prior planning lets me rest easy. So I keep one eye open like CBS...
