Raid Preparedness

Prepare decoys, clearly labeled. Feed the popo with what they want. Whatever you don't want to fall into their hands store it where it is unreachable.

pipona said:

Without getting into detail on our own personal OPSEC, are there some general best practices to follow to avoid having a dawn raid turn into a life-ruining catastrophe?

Make sure no hardware or data you don't want found at your premises - encrypted or not. Plausible deniability works far better than a drive or laptop being found and your refusal to unencrypt it. In some countries like South Africa it is illegal not to comply with a request to decrypt and is punishable by imprisonment. You can see the various laws for countries below.

gp-digital.org/world-map-of-encryption/
P.S Good luck pretending you lost the key..lol