When did the current conception of "security culture" enter anarchist circles? What has it really done to keep us safe?

Question

The first source I can find is in the issue #6 of the ALF magazine "No Compromise," published in the spring of 1997.

http://www.nocompromise.org/issues/06security.html

The article seems to suggest that the term may have already been in use by ALFers and others.

I'm most interested in finding any earlier sources, anecdotal or concrete. Examining the discourse around the term, and adoption of the concept, over the years. To see what, if any, impact it had in keeping anarchist and activists out of jail before and since it's common use.

Comments

"dandelions keep vampires away."
"when was the last time you saw a vampire?!"
"see?"

Answer 1

I'm not sure it's possible to determine with any "objective" or statistical accuracy whether security culture has had an effect on the overall safety and freedom (from imprisonment) of anarchists. There are so many other factors to consider.

The best answer I can imagine for this question is that the methods of security culture should be an obvious indicator of an increase in safety for anarchists.

If you minimize (or eliminate entirely) the number of people you tell about your activities, that means less people who might intentionally or unintentionally give away information about your activities. If you fully recognize and understand the technological capabilities of state surveillance, you have less chance of being trapped by that surveillance apparatus. If you recognize that the police have absolutely no intention of "making it easier on you" if you give them information and that, generally, people who cooperate with the police are more likely to face punishment than people who don't, you'll be less likely to make stupid mistakes when interacting with cops.

Comments

^this.
For some unresearched perspective that seems to match yours, I first heard the term (and read that No Compromise article) sometime between late 1997 & 1999. Certainly by the time that things were in motion for the anti-globalization tide came in, it was a buzz-phrase.

It actually became self defeating, at least for a time, in that people would be all like, "well, you know... security culture." Which everyone understood was meant to imply that whatever they were up to was some next level shit that they couldn't discuss just here and just now, but if you knew them and you knew what was what, you would draw your own conclusions and make your own mental leaps and correlations between said security conscious individuals and whatever the most recent radical action was.