THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU

Own your threat model.

Not mine. Not theirs. Yours.

That’s the line. Everything else is decoration. If you don’t own your threat model, someone else is writing the rules for you. And they’re not on your side.

Why it matters

Most people don’t have a threat model. They move through their digital life half asleep. They install apps because they’re “free.” They click accept because it’s faster than reading. They use the same password everywhere because remembering one more feels exhausting.

And then they’re shocked when the breach happens. When their account gets drained. When their phone gets cloned. When the knock on the door comes.

Security without a threat model is like swinging in the dark. You burn energy. You miss the point. You leave openings everywhere.

Start with yourself

Forget perfect. Forget some fantasy version of “unhackable.” Start with what’s real.

• What do you actually need to protect?
• Who are the people or entities you need to protect it from?
• How likely are those threats to actually show up?
• What would hurt the most if you lost it?

If you can answer those, you’re already ahead of 90% of people. The rest are just chasing shiny tools they barely understand. A new VPN. A random “military grade” app. Another Chrome extension that promises privacy while siphoning data behind the scenes.

Common traps

There are patterns I see over and over:

• Copycat threat models. People mimic someone else’s setup. Works for journalists in warzones, must work for me. Wrong. If you don’t face nation state surveillance, why live like you do?
• Noise chasing. Drowning in articles about “the latest hack.” Paranoid about obscure attacks that have nothing to do with their life.
• All or nothing. They either try to build a fortress they can’t maintain or they give up entirely and surrender to convenience.

The truth sits in between. Know your real exposure. Pick defenses that you’ll actually use. Refine them as your life changes.

A personal admission

I didn’t always follow my own advice. I used to treat every risk like it was the end of the world. I’d stack tool on tool until my system became unusable. Password managers, VMs inside VMs, networks chained to the point of absurdity. And still I left basic leaks open.

Why? Because I wasn’t owning my threat model. I was adopting someone else’s paranoia. That wasn’t security. That was noise.

Once I stripped it back to my reality, my devices, my routines, my real attackers I was able to lock down what mattered and stop stressing over what didn’t.

How to build your threat model

No mysticism. Just a framework you revisit as needed.

1. List your assets.
   What matters most to you? Family safety, financial accounts, personal photos, location data, work projects. Don’t over complicate it, just write them down.
2. Identify threats.
   Who or what would actually target those assets? Could be scammers, stalkers, ex-partners, corporations, governments. Each threat has different capabilities.
3. Measure likelihood.
   Be blunt. Is a phishing attack on your email likely? Yes. Is a satellite tailing your car? Probably not. Keep perspective.
4. Pick countermeasures.
   Encrypt your phone and computer. Use strong unique passwords. Cut back on personal information you post. Use cash sometimes. Simple moves beat complex ones you’ll abandon.
5. Revisit regularly.
   Life changes. Jobs shift. Relationships end. Devices pile up. Threat models need tuning like a guitar, ignore it and you’ll go out of tune fast.

This isn’t about paranoia

People roll their eyes at “privacy nuts.” They call it tinfoil, but that’s projection. They’ve outsourced their safety to systems that profit from their exposure. They trust default settings built by companies that thrive on extraction.

Refuse the default. Building your threat model isn’t about hiding. It’s about refusing to be owned. About clawing back control piece by piece.

You don’t need to be invisible. You need to stop being an easy target.

The payoff

When you own your threat model, decisions get simple. Should you download that “free” app? If your threat model says your location data is sensitive, then no. Should you talk about personal routines on social media? If your threat model includes stalkers, then absolutely not.

You move from reacting to planning. From confusion to clarity. From feeling trapped to having agency.

And that’s the shift most people never make.

Final word

Stop chasing perfection. It doesn’t exist. What exists is a model built for your life and a strategy you can execute.

List your assets. Name your threats. Be honest. Cut the noise. Act on what matters.

You’ll be more prepared than almost everyone around you. Not perfect. Just better.

Stay quiet. Lock down. Own your threat model.

-GHOST
Written by GHOST, creator of the Untraceable Digital Dissident project.

This is part of the Untraceable Digital Dissident series — tactical privacy for creators and rebels.
Explore more privacy tactics at untraceabledigitaldissident.com.