Much of this seems like good advice. This definitely seems like the way you'd have to think to pull off something like this reliably with a strong enough attacker on your heels.
It's amusing to think of what happens if you follow this too far though. Essentially you're putting on a mask that is as uncorrelated with yourself as possible. But if your intent is to publish something, that seems contradictory to some extent. Can't use your own point of view, can't use your own expertise, can't use your daily experiences or any information specific to yourself. The only sense you'd be publishing a blog would be mechanically. Anything you actually intended to say would be lost in the white noise of everything you must say in order to stay hidden.
That could happen in an extreme case, but I think if the intent is to write something to inform, then regardless of one's expertise the content should make clear the value.
I think when assessing anyone's work that is done through a pseudonym, anon, or what appears as a clearly fake profile, one needs to really pick and choose how they decide to ingest that information.
I would be hesitant to even remark on the anon blog that the blog is written in the most defensive manner possible, as that indicates to adversaries the level of aggression the target expects, which can itself narrow-down where they might be.
It is a truly hard problem, but if the value of OP is complete anonymity and the signal to noise ratio isn't as important, then these obfuscation steps are valuable. Not the least because they can be implemented or dropped at any time as one's security threat changes.
Comments
Much of this seems like good advice. This definitely seems like the way you'd have to think to pull off something like this reliably with a strong enough attacker on your heels.
It's amusing to think of what happens if you follow this too far though. Essentially you're putting on a mask that is as uncorrelated with yourself as possible. But if your intent is to publish something, that seems contradictory to some extent. Can't use your own point of view, can't use your own expertise, can't use your daily experiences or any information specific to yourself. The only sense you'd be publishing a blog would be mechanically. Anything you actually intended to say would be lost in the white noise of everything you must say in order to stay hidden.
That could happen in an extreme case, but I think if the intent is to write something to inform, then regardless of one's expertise the content should make clear the value.
I think when assessing anyone's work that is done through a pseudonym, anon, or what appears as a clearly fake profile, one needs to really pick and choose how they decide to ingest that information.
I would be hesitant to even remark on the anon blog that the blog is written in the most defensive manner possible, as that indicates to adversaries the level of aggression the target expects, which can itself narrow-down where they might be.
It is a truly hard problem, but if the value of OP is complete anonymity and the signal to noise ratio isn't as important, then these obfuscation steps are valuable. Not the least because they can be implemented or dropped at any time as one's security threat changes.