The recent case of the young and rather comely Charlotte Proudman inviting the middle-aged Alexander Carter-Silk to connect to her on Linked-in and then publishing his private response is unusual but instructive.

Middle-aged men should be aware that when attractive young ladies send them invitations on social networks it is because they want something.

The jury is out on whether Ms Proudman is cynical self-publicist who seeks to build her repuatation on the ashes of others repuations, a Gal-Queda* member or perhaps both. To establish that one would have to look at the pattern of her linked-in invitations. For example, was she targetting middle-aged men? Has she changed her profile picture recently?

If Ms Proudman was engaged in a social engineering attack then she would not be alone. Once you have connected to someone Linked-in will allow them to mine your contacts list in exchange for a small payment. This is very valuable for social engineering attacks.

For example, the attacker might phone your secretary and say “Hi, I’m James’ contact Sarah from XYZ Corp could you …”

The Register describes Linked-in attacks in more detail.

I am listed as a CIO in Linked-in and receive a least one invitation to connect to a glamous women every day. Think twice before accepting an invitation to connect and always read and assess their profile.

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

Leo Tolstoy(1828-1910) Russian writer.

*In the original post this was “feminazi”. I have changed this to “Gal-Queda member” because the comparision with nazism is wrong. Gal-Queda more neatly encapsulates the idea of zeolots who glory in the public destruction of themselves and others to “advance” their cause.