-
@ OpSec Academy
2025-06-04 01:56:42**Inside OpSec Academy’s One-on-One Approach to Digital Sovereignty ** As digital infrastructure becomes increasingly opaque and centralised, a growing number of individuals are seeking to understand—not just use—the tools that protect their privacy and autonomy online. While many solutions promise security at the click of a button, few teach the underlying principles or offer environments that prioritise verifiability and user control.
OpSec Academy’s new one-on-one training, "OpSec Intensive," takes a different approach. Delivered in person and fully offline, the full-day session provides practical, tool-based instruction inside a secure, USB-booted environment—designed from the ground up to leave no trace.
At the heart of the session is OpSecOS v1.2, a live operating system that routes all traffic through Tor, uses system non-persistence, and comes preconfigured with a suite of open-source tools for password management, communication, and private finance. The OS runs from a USB stick, allowing participants to explore and build their own private computing workflows without touching the host machine.
Learning in Context: Why One-on-One? While group training can provide a general introduction to privacy concepts, it often lacks depth and adaptability. OpSec Intensive is structured as a one-on-one session to allow real-time feedback, personal threat modeling, and tailored instruction based on the participant’s specific context and technical background.
This format also makes space for slow, deliberate learning—a rarity in cybersecurity training, where content is often condensed or overly abstract. In OpSec Intensive, participants move through each phase at their own pace, working directly with an experienced instructor to build confidence and competence.
Structure and Content of the Day The curriculum spans both foundational theory and hands-on practice, beginning with basic OpSec principles before moving into technical tool use.
Topics include: * Booting and verifying OpSecOS * Secure USB creation and system verification * Navigating a non-persistent, Tor-routed live environment * Password and credential management * Offline use of KeePassXC * Strategies for vault organisation and redundancy * Bitcoin wallet setup and recovery * Single-signature and multisignature wallet creation using Sparrow, Electrum, and Feather * Understanding xpubs, derivation paths, and recovery flow * Seed phrase security * Entropy generation and validation using offline tools like iancoleman.io * Best practices for cold storage and physical backups * Network privacy and decentralised communication * Using Mempool.space to visualise Bitcoin transaction data * Setting up Nostr clients (Snort, Iris) for decentralised messaging * Discussion of traffic fingerprinting and Tor considerations
A Shift Toward Practical Sovereignty The tools and workflows covered in OpSec Intensive are not theoretical. Participants leave the session with configured environments, tested backups, and an understanding of what each tool does—and what it doesn’t do.
This reflects a broader shift in how privacy-conscious individuals are approaching digital security. Rather than relying on packaged services or closed-source software, there’s growing interest in verifiable, modular tools that prioritise autonomy and resilience over ease-of-use.
In that context, OpSec Academy’s offering sits somewhere between a workshop and an apprenticeship: not a lecture, but a process of guided, hands-on learning designed for the long haul.
To learn more or enquire about availability, visit opsecacademy.org.