Communication Pods - Transcript

27 Apr, 2026

Communication Pods

Presented by Annie Thorburn (she/her)

Communication pods are small, managable information sharing networks that allow people to share information with little risk of infiltration.
This is the operations part of Operational Security
Communication pods are tree based communication structures.

Root
|-- a
| |-- 1
| |-- 2
| |-- 3
|-- b
| |-- 1
| |-- 2
| |-- 3
|-- c
| |-- 1
| |-- 2
| |-- 3

Communication trees should be focused on a singular subject, event, or action
If a communication tree is made based on an event or action, all of the pods in the tree should be deleted an hour after the event
The first pod made for any communication tree is considered the root pod

Pods should have one captain
Pods should not be greater than 5-7 people, including the captain
The people in the pod should all be well known to the captain. No one should be a stranger to the captain
Any individual should be in no more than two pods for any given communication tree.
An individual should not be a captain in more than one pod
Captains are responsible for disseminating information to the pod, determining if they are allowed to disseminate the information to their pods, and for the safety and trust of the group.
An individual in a pod who is not the captain is a cadet
No group should know about the members of another group.
Members should be using call signs, not their actual names, in the communication pods

There should be no one in the pod that the captain did not specifically invite to the pod — if someone asks to be invited to your pod, there is some form of leak and they are likely to be an infiltrator.
- why do they know about your pod?
Cadets should be individually invited and added to a pod by the captain. They should not be invited as part of a group.
Cadets recruited to your pod should be people you know well, trust, and have met in person
Captains are responsible for training the cadets in their group on the expectations of the pod

Only over end to end encrypted lines (Signal)
People should consider using a separate signal account from their regular signal account that is not attached to their personal name.
Information should be copy and pasted from the captain you recieved it from without any identifying informaiton
Questions travel up the tree - if a cadet has a question, they ask their captain. The captain then asks their own captain this same question.
Chats should be structured to delete messages after 24 hours
If you have sensitive information, withold important information until an hour before the event. Usually, this should be the location of the event – if there is an infiltrator, it is harder for them to go to cover lots of locations with only an hour to prepare.
This can also be a password for a virtual event

Root node determines what information is sent down the tree
Cadets who are captains of their own pods disseminate information down a tree if the captain of their parent pod instructs them to

To Nich and Dylan from TRMA for reading this document over and providing commentary