more networking means more security

When i was developing my last theme, i tried to add as many social elements as i could to it. I added a twitter feed and a list of my social profiles, plus my latest flickr photos.

With this new theme, i’ll be linking to and pulling more data than ever from my online profiles.

• There’ll be a new dedicated photo section which pulls all of my photos from flickr.
• There’ll be quick and easy access on all pages to all of my major profiles on twitter, bebo, facebook etc…
• There’ll be a full section/page which does nothing but pull all the latest data from all of my profiles.

Here’s a little teaser;

This will not only make my blog more personal, it will encourage me to become more active on these external sites as i know they’re all intertwined with my own blog. And if i let any of them go stale or die, part of my blog will die.

It also becomes a more dangerous game when integrating everything together… security becomes a bigger problem – for example, if i now post a blog post, that post is not just seen by my blog readers…

It’s seen by all of my twitter friends, which in turn links to my bebo account – so it’s seen by all my bebo friends too. Same when i upload an image to flickr – it can be seen on flickr, my blog, bebo, friendfeed etc…

I’d estimate a single blog post is sent to about 2000 people if i factor in all my social contacts. Now of course 2000 people won’t read it, i’d be lucky to get 10% reading, but that’s not the point… the point is that the blog’s reach extends way beyond the blog itself and it’s intertwined with all of my social networking profiles, so in the wrong hands, it’s a very dangerous weapon which can be used against me. Maybe it’s just me, but i feel e-crime is becoming a bigger problem.

There’ll always be the classic nigerian lottery email scam, but what about this;

New blog post, saying i’m in trouble, need cash urgently, just been mugged and held at gun point, someone close to me taken hostage – i can’t go to the cops without wiring €1000 to a bank account…. i have 1 hour for the cash to be sent or i’ve been told i’ll never see person ‘x’ again. Anyone, ANYONE, please just send the cash now – all of this will be sorted out later!

Now that would be one hell of a clever scam artist. First of all, he’d have posted this on my blog, which would in turn immediately trigger a twitter message to 800 followers… then on to my friendfeed account and another 100 friends or so on bebo.

So there’s a good chance, out of about 1000 people who instantly get sent a link to this blog post, a few them will be online and will have read this new blog post and they’ll know me or know of me. It’s a tad dramatic, but believable – it would make you re-read and think about it… you’ll know that logically, it makes sense that i blog about i – i can connect with loads of people quickly and it’s the fastest way i could get the cash in 1 hour as people would be online anyway…

The time frame of 1 hour is crucial – it forces people to make decisions and increases the urgency of it all… it’s an interesting dilemma but only a very clever and determined scammer could pull it off.

There’s an interesting story here, somewhat similar only less dramatic None the less he got the money before anyone noticed…