God bless America, and all the things that it's given us. Like the computer, and the world wide web. Although, turns out, that has a lot more to do with Tommy Flowers, Alan Turing and Sir Tim Berners Lee. Whoops.
Putting that aside, one of the ways that all this joined up communication has changed our lives is through blogs just like this one. Not that I couldn't just sound off previously; that was what that stool in the corner of the pub that the regulars would avoid was for. Or, I suppose, I could pin my opinions to a wall, and come back a few days later to to see how abusive the graffiti was.
But what the tree wouldn't be able to give me was chapter and verse on who was reading my missive, where and when. Which is what a site like blogger, and many more, does.
A few weeks ago I was heartened to see a spike in my readership (yes, gentle reader, you are not alone. I wouldn't book a big venue for a get together, but you are not alone). But there was something odd about it.
Being a blog in the English language, you wouldn't be surprised to find out that the majority of my readers are in the US of A, with about half as many again on my side of the pond in Great Britain. After that it's a mish-mash of nations, although Ukraine seems disproportionately high up the rankings (greetings Kyiv!). But all of my new readers - or, possibly, a single reader making a lot of hits - appeared to come from Russia.
Now, why should that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up? Russia has a great history of science fiction, even if I found Tarkovsky unmitigated arse. Why shouldn't this be some Soviet sci-fi maven having stumbled across a recent story or my novel 2084 and wanting to know more?
Because Russia, in the eyes of the West, is associated with hacking, cybercrime and data theft. That's why.
Now, that may all be a product of media-led groupthink, but it did lead me to wonder just how exposed I am. I am, quite deliberately, a light user of social media. I don't tweet or facebook (is that a verb? with or without a capital?) or pin, regardless of interest. It's been pointed out to me, despite denials, that I have a YouTube channel, not that much gets channelled. But I do have this blog.
And from this blog you can locate my email address, and it wouldn't take a lot of work to find my company, which would give you my home address and date of birth. The bio from my earliest stories gives my place of birth, although I'd lied to create more interest and said I was from Zanzibar or Sierra Leone or somesuch, so feel free to use that at your leisure to hack into my life. I like to think that's where the trail goes cold: there's nothing on this blog to suggest any passwords, not pet's names or favourite animals or teams supported or roads grown up on, but can I be sure I haven't left a nugget on my digital trail at some point?
A simple record of who's been looking at me gave me cause to worry, and I have a far smaller digital footprint than many, including my teenage children. Dwell on that a moment. And as we move to a cashless society am I the only one who can see some time in the future when we all wake up one morning to find our accounts wiped? Am I the only one who wonders whether the criminals already have the means out there to empty our digital wallets and they're just waiting until some scale is reached?
Just think of what that would mean (although I think Mr Robot already has). If you were robbed, that's one thing, but what if everybody were robbed? What if money were simply removed from the equation? Nobody had anything. And that includes the banks and businesses. We'd have to find another way. Bartering or battering? Social equality imposed deus ex machina, or anarchy? I don't know.
But what I do know is that you don't see the edge of the cliff until it's too late.
Putting that aside, one of the ways that all this joined up communication has changed our lives is through blogs just like this one. Not that I couldn't just sound off previously; that was what that stool in the corner of the pub that the regulars would avoid was for. Or, I suppose, I could pin my opinions to a wall, and come back a few days later to to see how abusive the graffiti was.
But what the tree wouldn't be able to give me was chapter and verse on who was reading my missive, where and when. Which is what a site like blogger, and many more, does.
A few weeks ago I was heartened to see a spike in my readership (yes, gentle reader, you are not alone. I wouldn't book a big venue for a get together, but you are not alone). But there was something odd about it.
Being a blog in the English language, you wouldn't be surprised to find out that the majority of my readers are in the US of A, with about half as many again on my side of the pond in Great Britain. After that it's a mish-mash of nations, although Ukraine seems disproportionately high up the rankings (greetings Kyiv!). But all of my new readers - or, possibly, a single reader making a lot of hits - appeared to come from Russia.
Now, why should that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up? Russia has a great history of science fiction, even if I found Tarkovsky unmitigated arse. Why shouldn't this be some Soviet sci-fi maven having stumbled across a recent story or my novel 2084 and wanting to know more?
Because Russia, in the eyes of the West, is associated with hacking, cybercrime and data theft. That's why.
Now, that may all be a product of media-led groupthink, but it did lead me to wonder just how exposed I am. I am, quite deliberately, a light user of social media. I don't tweet or facebook (is that a verb? with or without a capital?) or pin, regardless of interest. It's been pointed out to me, despite denials, that I have a YouTube channel, not that much gets channelled. But I do have this blog.
And from this blog you can locate my email address, and it wouldn't take a lot of work to find my company, which would give you my home address and date of birth. The bio from my earliest stories gives my place of birth, although I'd lied to create more interest and said I was from Zanzibar or Sierra Leone or somesuch, so feel free to use that at your leisure to hack into my life. I like to think that's where the trail goes cold: there's nothing on this blog to suggest any passwords, not pet's names or favourite animals or teams supported or roads grown up on, but can I be sure I haven't left a nugget on my digital trail at some point?
A simple record of who's been looking at me gave me cause to worry, and I have a far smaller digital footprint than many, including my teenage children. Dwell on that a moment. And as we move to a cashless society am I the only one who can see some time in the future when we all wake up one morning to find our accounts wiped? Am I the only one who wonders whether the criminals already have the means out there to empty our digital wallets and they're just waiting until some scale is reached?
Just think of what that would mean (although I think Mr Robot already has). If you were robbed, that's one thing, but what if everybody were robbed? What if money were simply removed from the equation? Nobody had anything. And that includes the banks and businesses. We'd have to find another way. Bartering or battering? Social equality imposed deus ex machina, or anarchy? I don't know.
But what I do know is that you don't see the edge of the cliff until it's too late.
oh so Ditto!...and I'm practically computer illiterate! I also do not tweet (twitter is SO aptly named), facebook or pin or tiktok or...whatever. "The Cloud"...wtf??? "cashless society"- when I was growing up that meant 'bums' (ie homeless, usually drunks/addicts).
ReplyDeleteThen again, when I was growing up, admitting you listened to and actually did what a disembodied voice told you to do was effectively building an insanity plea - now called Satnav. Go figure...