Re: Researcher seeks volunteers for interview

[Mark Montague <markmont () UMICH EDU>]

On March 4, 2010 13:42 , Michelle Young <myoung () IST PSU EDU> wrote:
> Ha ha, ok that's fair.  So any suggestions on how a poor master's
> student could convince someone... anyone to talk to her?  Letters of
> recommendation from other Listserv participants?
>
>     Does detecting a social-engineering attack count? ;)
>
>     Sorry Michelle - but that's somewhat a serious question.  Security
>     professionals
>     are by nature at least somewhat paranoid, and unlikely to
>     volunteer info
>     unless they're reasonably sure they know who they're talking to.


Having a reasonably highly placed person at Penn State make the request
-- perhaps the CISO, or someone from Penn State's Security Operations
and Services -- might be good.  Ideally, the person could be contacted
using information publicly available through Penn State's web site for
verification of legitimacy of the request.

Even better, have Penn State's REN-ISAC contact sent the request to the
REN-ISAC list.  Since REN-ISAC is a private, vetted community, this is a
much safer option.

                Mark Montague
                ITS Web/Database Team
                The University of Michigan
                markmont () umich edu