Cyber praxis wields the theoretical framing of political praxis, the application of theory in material reality, as a means of enacting cyber justice.
Cyber justice is a theory of social justice centering cybernetic control, technofeudalism, and postmodern warfare. The framing seeks to disempower bad faith actors who seek to use the technological innovations to enrich themselves at the detriment of human prosperity. Most people rightly associate the state of technology and surveillance capitalism as a means of oppression, but cyber justice inverts this thinking so that we can liberate ourselves from oppressive systems of injustice through technological means.
Rapid response emerges in response to settler progroms and mass deportations. It is the practice of mitigating the immense harms against targeted individuals through hyper local groups, communicating via digital means. Communicating safely and privately is paramount to its implementation.
The harms enacted by individuals can be documented, due to the widespread access to cameras and communications. Counter surveillance is a response to surveillance capitalism, and uses the tools of documenting, indexing within databases, and data unification, in order to make possible (even retroactively) accountability for the harms being done. It has been used as a means of accountability towards cops, immigration agents, soldiers and settlers, and forefronts of exploitation and war whereever they operate. This is transparency and cyber praxis.
Many actors in 'legitimate' institutions commit crimes (both legal and ethical), shielded by the opacity of the systems they operate within. The revelation of this information is often in legal grey areas, and is often performed by so-called hackers or whistleblowers, who often find themselves in jail or in exile. Exposing injustice in this way is textbook cyber praxis.
Communications are at the forefront of surveillance. Phone lines, SMS messaging, and social media communications are something worse than public domain. They are the private domain of bad faith actors, without any transparency or oversight. As such, empowering ourselves to communicate outside of these systems is an important part of cyber praxis. Meshcore and meshtastic are both decentralized radio technologies that empower communities to communicate with one another without a centralized authority who can listen to and control these communications. IRC channels are a fundamental part of private peer-to-peer communications in the digital world. So are MQTT servers, and the i2p web, etc. If we understand the protocols we use, and create the infrastructure that actualizes it, then we as people don't have to be subject to any mass means of spying. This is cyber praxis.
Our transportation is another passive means by which we are watched. Maps are digital trails of our every turn. So called license-plate-readers are cameras that watch our every move inside or outside of a vehicle. Adapt to using open source maps, offline maps, paper maps. Use a small electrically powered mobility device (bike, scooter, skateboard-like, etc.) to move independently of systems of registration and surveillance. Using digital roadside signage can be a means of messaging (as is done in missing persons cases) and is a powerful tool of information awareness. Modifying infrastructure to be less hostile towards pedestrians, cyclists, and mobility devices (wheelchairs and scooters) is a means of enacting justice. Car and motorcycle drivers can use their transport to do wardriving to provide transparency around telecommunications systems, or corking, a means of protecting free speech from rogue actors weaponizing vehicles to suppress speech. All of these things constitute cyber praxis.
DIY is the best way to empower yourself technologically. Building smart devices from components that don't spy on us. CAD software that does not feed data brokers. Repurposing e-waste is an immediate way to build things and learn quickly. 3D printers, personal machinery, and maker spaces give individuals the freedom to build anything, so we need not rely on exploitative supply chains for each and every piece. Building engineering skills independently from the military industrial complex is cyber praxis.
When systems of oppression refuse to bargain, chaos emerges. In periods of conflict, preparedness is of the utmost importance. Defense against cyber attacks, defense against physical attacks, and protections of peoples lives is no small matter. In the current century, we have seen firsthand the importance of remote ariel vehicles in conflict, the defense capabilities against them. Computer vision can produce tracking algorithms, radar technologies can assist with tracking, and software defined radio can enable detection, all ways of defending against this kind of violence. Escaping or obfuscating various modes of surveillance can be the only way to escape rights violations by the legal system, the violence of incarceration cannot be defended against, only overcome with time and with justice. Relying on personal and community technologies is security. Using a farraday bag is security. Wearing a mask is security and it is protecting the marginalized community of people living with illness.
The ends of these means are autonomy and liberty. Infrastructure and technology that is communally maintained and protected. The goal is sovereignty over our physical and digital lives.