Preparing for the possible

[huntrseekr]

I have three boys in school. Do you have recommendations or a resource you can point me to, so I can better prepare my boys for the possible school shooter.

[mynewunit]

First question: What is the correct response from your child?

I can't tell you what the correct response is for every child. If you want them to self preserve, teach them that they have control of their future. That skill is something they can get from boy scouts. Give them skills and self reliance.

If you want them to help their classmates, put them in team sports. They will learn the benefit on relying on others. Rules, following instructions, and sacrificing for others.

If you want them to stand a change in a physical altercation, put them in BJJ. This is the greatest advantage you can give a child over an adult, which the child will still loose the majority of the time even against an untrained adult.

Second question: Is the training worth the cost? 

Don't forget that teaching you child for this situation changes your child.  There is a cost of innocence. I have "insulated" my children from these types of world problems. Even teaching my children fire safety has caused some stress and anxiety. That is a very valuable skill, with a correct response, and it still has a cost.

If you want to reduce your child's risk of dying by a much more significant margin, you would learn to install their car seat and use it properly every time. Another option is to remove your family pool, and/or teach your child to swim proficiently.

Third question: What children do you want to have?

The things that will be helpful: Creativity, Physical Fitness, Compassion, Initiative, Teamwork, Discipline, Meaningfulness, Mindfulness, Controlled Aggression. 

These will not only be helpful with a stress, tragedy, but also with a 30 year career, finding a spouse, having a family, writing a book, owning a house.

I would build the foundation of a eminently qualified human being.

Then put them in BJJ.

[huntrseekr]

Thanks.

It's good to know we are in the right lane on this. All of the boys have sheep-dog tendencies, which we foster, and the BJJ has been helpful for everyone.

Onward...

[mynewunit]

Yeah. Because of a bad habit, I read the new posts bottom to top. I answered this before reading your introduction. You are in the right arena. Being the oldest of 3 boys you are entering an age of quasi self sufficient, ravenous, monsters. I have girls so it is a learning experience.

[Alejandro]

I wanted to ask for your advice on how to deactivate a nonintrusive cyber surveillance system focused on me, my family, and friends to influence us negatively, and how to respond on possible encounters. Summary of the situation:

Last year I realized that I was being surveilled through electronic devices, and there were some physical and digital social engineered interactions. I lived in Victoria, BC and it happened a few times and I thought it was just coincidences until it became evident that I was not paranoid and a group was monitoring my activity online. In the process of understanding who was involved, I contacted authorities, doctors, community leaders, but it was not resolved. It was manageable until they started to influence my environment and relationships negatively, it has prevented me and my family from finding employment, making new acquaintances, and have intimidated and influenced myself, family and friends into unwanted situations with digital and physical encounters and risky situations, at this point it became scary and I left the city to realize these groups are everywhere, implement social engineering tactics to influence us negatively into pre-arranged meetings, employment, groups etc.

My interpretation about how the system works is that it resides somewhere in the dark web, it acquires data from electronic devices, location, audio, video, learns and predict behaviors, generates encrypted reports distributed via emails, messages, applications, social media platforms to influence our environment via notifications, robocalls, emails, media, advertising, jeopardizing our privacy and freedom. It has been very harmful, and unfortunately, it has not been disabled after almost a year, I am looking for a cybersecurity expert to work with me to deactivate it.

Fortunately, I have worked with coaches, authorities, community leaders and others that solved similar situations, and was able to identify security system and methods to deal with the stress and prevent any further escalations, and I am very grateful for the opportunity given to myself, family to recover from this. At the same time, I realize that without deactivating this surveillance system, reports, and media campaign, we won't be able to recover our privacy and freedom, and these people don't care about the wellbeing of my family and friends. Unfortunately, we don't have active military experience or authorities in my family that could navigate this situation nowadays, and lack of leadership and skills has separate us which makes us an easier target.

What tools do they have;
- Political, I guess they influence public services such as healthcare, authorities, first responders, and community organized groups
- Cyber surveillance, cyberbullying, they deployed a non-intrusive system to monitor activities on our electronic devices, email accounts, electronic communications, provide reports that cascade into media campaigns, robocalls, notifications etc This also prevents us from engaging with new employment, activities etc forcing us into unwanted situations
- Reindex of online platforms, and search engines preventing us from finding the sources
- Organized groups, they fabricate digital and physical encounters inside online and physical platforms to influence our behaviors
- Control electronic devices, alarms, notifications, emails, updates messages

What is their objective;
- Influence us to join their groups by employing social engineered tactics, my family and friends have been recruited and employed into risky undesired employment opportunities
- Prevent us from reaching financial, social, psychological stability
- Jeopardize our freedom, privacy
- A confrontation between different political or believe system with an attempt to make us engage with their groups
- Interference with our social environment

I am worried I will run out of time and money to solve this situation, and every attempt to solve it has ended with unsuccessful results.

What I tried so far;
- Move to other countries, cities, and ignored it for months
- Disconnect from social media, electronic devices, change phone numbers, use encrypted secure communication methods
- Apply for employment in different industries related to security, cyber security, government to identify some support
- Reported it to authorities, Intelligence groups, community leaders, social counselors, doctors
- Speak to people might be related to them and can establish a connection to understand what is the problem and solve it

How would you recommend to solve this issue? What would be your strategy? Are there any courses, or programs that you would recommend? Why do you think authorities haven't deactivated this system? I am considering engaging with a cybersecurity expert, private investigator, political parties, identifying an MMA coach, starting a business to support my family, but I am a concern that my efforts can affect my family and friends negatively, and any attempt to engage with a new group is misled and obstructed by this system. My career so far has been in Energy Systems, Project Management, and Marketing, if you know of any organization that could incorporate my skills, and at the same time deactivate this system, I am willing to collaborate to prevent this from happening again.

I am sorry if I sound desperate, I have been dealing with this for almost a year and I can't think of a resolution in the near future. I appreciate very much your advice, I have listened to your podcast for a long time and found it very pragmatical and informative. I always wanted to optimize my self-defense abilities, join armed forces for which I hold much respect, my career and the personal situation took me to pursue a business and engineering degree, and now I realize the importance of developing these skills earlier.

Thank you,

Alejandro

[mynewunit]

This feels like something more for Reddit or Infowars.
If some organization was conducting cyber surveillance on you, it is a lot of work and effort. It could also be confirmation bias. You see things that make you believe that your thoughts are right and you don't see all the things that prove your thoughts wrong.

Next there 2 types of people who ask to have cyber systems changed. Those who are looking and those who are trying to not be seen. It is impossible to prove which one you are.
I would use the stoic solution. The obstical is the way. Since you are the only one being surveilled, use it to your advantage. I don't know what that looks like. But if you are an engineer, you would be the most qualified person to determine that.