Choho -The Lowly Janitor
How many times have you ever thought about the lowly janitor cleaning up the office, taking out the trash, and saying goodnight to you as you pass him on the way out? What was his name again? Do you remember if it was someone new? Most of us, sadly do not look upon him and think “what if this person was capable of stealing information?”
What, the Janitor? Yes, ninjutsu practitioners the janitor. In my career I have been a janitor and have used it to my advantage, gleaning the gossip from one room to another as I chit chatted and took out the trash. Many people will share a lot of information with you, if they feel it will go nowhere, but to the janitor.
As you are called to gather competitive intelligence on a rival business, enemy of your family etc., how do you go about this? Well now I think I have given you a pretty easy clue here! Meet the janitor, see if you can coax him into bringing out the trash to you, or if not follow him to the dumpster and take it. Do you realize how much information is in a persons or business’s trash? If you are not careful with your operational security(Ops Sec) you may be giving away sensitive information about your family, friends, and business identities. It does not take much information to form a profile about where money is spent, whom you associate with, what bank you use, stores you shop at, just think about it from the gathering of intelligence side and reverse it to help protect your sensitive information. Next time you see the janitor think about what secrets he is privy to, and what he might be gleaning from your trash!
Cultivating your network of operatives is sometimes easier than you would think, so get to know your Janitor, trash pick-up team, even that homeless guy picking through the trash for cans or bottles. I bet you they know more than you would like them to know about you and probably about your target as well.
Alright, now you have a new lesson in front of you, what are you going to do with it?
Bufu Ikkan
Ps: September is here and I am going to be rocking this site with ton’s of information!! Stay tuned post comments and ask questions.
Airyu