italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies

Cari colleghi,
Perhaps it's just my over-active imagination, or perhaps I'm just
being paranoid (but recall the "old" proverb "just because you're
paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you"), but, in reference
to the recent posting by our colleague in England, I just wanted to
throw something out here for people's consideration.

1) I was recently the victim of identity theft (be very careful what
information you share with unknown websites or individuals, especially
if your "inner voice" is warning you that it might not be safe--i.e.,
trust your intuition--sometimes, it can be the best ally you have).

2) a year or so ago, I read an article which described in detail how
certain (once again, virtual) individuals were trying to gather
articles from academics for marvelous-sounding periodicals which did
not, in fact, exist. Why?--this is part of my hypothesis here.

3) even more recently, an individual of the female gender contacted me
"out of the blue" by email, praising in flattering terms an article I
had written (published in an online journal) and asking permission to
cite my article, and also asking me to provide further details
regarding my biography. Sensing (one hopes, incorrectly--please do
forgive me, signora, if you are reading this--as I said, I have an
over-active imagination) that something might be up, I replied in a
somewhat vague way, to which she responded seeking more details of my
personal biography.

Here is what I wanted to put out for people's consideration:

Could these things be related? Are all (or some) of these events part
of some kind of very clever and subtle "phishing expedition" (to use
the cyber-security term) designed to gather as much personal
information on as many individuals as possible? If so, what could
possibly be the motive?

Here, one can only speculate. I know this sounds like something out of
a spy novel, but, if one allows, for the sake of argument, that this
might be the case, it might be very useful to certain individuals or
organizations to construct a rather complete (even down to tiny
details, such as one's publication history) "virtual persona" which
could then be used (or assumed) by these individuals for various
purposes, such as infiltrating academic organizations, gathering
information, etc. I know we in general as academics (I know that this
is the case for me) like to think of ourselves as dedicated to pure
research for its own sake and the love of it, but, once again, if one
thinks about it for a moment, having a fake "pseudo-persona,"
especially if this persona were to move from the virtual to the real
world, might be very useful for travel, infiltration, information
gathering purposes, etc. As we all know, academics are always
traveling, seeing new things, meeting new people, sharing (generally
trustingly, perhaps even naively) information--an absolutely perfect
"cover" for any of the nefarious activities just mentioned.

Ten or fifteen years ago, I remember reading an article which
described in rather chilling detail how the "Moonies" (a religious
cult run by a shadowy South Korean "pastor," possibly a North Korean
or Chinese agent) had actually (and this, unfortunately, is no
fiction) managed to penetrate the United States government up to the
highest levels, including key and highly sensitive agencies. If then,
why not now?

I'm sorry to be so long in this posting, but I did think that some of
these things might bear thinking about--even if, in this specific
case, as I sincerely hope, I'm indulging in idle speculation. Perhaps
it is one of the supreme ironies of the internet age that, as
technology carries us ever faster into the future, we may have to
revert to such primitive means as hand signals or secret passwords to
make ourselves known to fellow true lovers of knowledge, and avoid
those spioni e maledicenti with various hidden agendas which, with
good reason, we, as busy academics with our own work to do, have no
need or desire to involve ourselves with. (A proposito, mi raccomando,
su questo argomento, leggete attentamente The Snowden Files, uscito
recentemente--veramente affascinante!)

Jim Ward (e virtuale e reale--o cosi' spero)
Berkeley, CA

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