Investigating computer security professionals' community experiences

Making computer security more approachable

Study Description

We’re conducting a survey to understand the educational and support communities surrounding people in the computer security community, both students and professionals. We want to hear about positive and negative interactions you’ve had and what impact the community has had on your development and level of success in your career in security (either as a student and/or professional). Some examples of interactions include responses to questions you’ve asked or requests for help, project collaborations, feedback on public work/statements (e.g., vulnerability reports, social media posts), etc. Our goal in this research is to learn more about how the computer security community works, so we can make recommendations to leaders in this community to better support all members.

Participants will be entered into a raffle for a 1 in 20 chance to win one of 25 $50.00 Amazon gift cards.

All gathered data will be encrypted and securely stored without any personally identifiable information, only accessible by the research team. You are not required to provide any personally identifiable information. If you choose to provide your email address Your anonymity will be protected by storing this information separately from all other survey responses. No personally identifiable information will be included in any reported results.

If you are interested in participating, please click the button below to begin the (<20 min) survey.

If you would like to participate, but feel uncomfortable completing the survey, please email Daniel Votipka to discuss potential alternatives.

Researchers

Samantha Katcher

PhD Student
Tufts University
Computer Science Department

samantha.katcher@tufts.edu

Liana Wang

Undergraduate Student
Tufts University
Computer Science Department

liana.wang@tufts.edu

Daniel Votipka

Assistant Professor
Tufts University
Computer Science Department

dvotipka@cs.tufts.edu

.

FAQ

1. WHY ARE YOU CONTACTING ME?

We’re conducting a survey to understand the educational and support communities surrounding people in the computer security community, both students and professionals. We want to hear about positive and negative interactions you’ve had and what impact the community has had on your development and level of success in your career in security (either as a student and/or professional).

2. WHO ARE YOU?

A group of academic researchers who are passionate about cybersecurity research, improving community interactions, and making software safer.

3. WHAT HAPPENS IF I WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

If you choose to participate, you can follow this link to take the survey, which will begin by asking you about different groups of people you may have interacted with throughout your career. Specifically, we will ask you about close relationships (mentors, family, and friends); people you have regular interactions with (your workplace, school); people you have less frequent, but likely still more substantial interactions with (professional or affinity-based groups); and people you interact with less frequently in public spaces (forums, social media, conferences). Your responses will be analyzed anonymously (and you may choose not to provide us with any unique identifiers), and we will publish anonymous aggregated results in peer-reviewed, academic publications.

4. I AM CONCERNED ABOUT MY DATA SECURITY AND PRIVACY!

Fantastic! So are we! All your data will be kept confidential and will be accessible only to the researchers themselves. The only identiable information we ask you to provide is an email addres so we can let you know if you won the raffle and/or contact you for future studies. Both are done on an opt-in basis. If you don't want to share your email, you don't have to. If you want to participate in the raffle, but don't want us to ever contact you again, that's fine with us too. If you do share your email address, it will be disassoaited from any responses you provide on the survey and we will never share it with anyone outside the research team or use it to contact you beyond the specific purposes you opt-in to. If you have any concerns about privacy that are not covered here, please don't hesitate to contact Daniel Votipka and he can discuss your concerns and see if we can make adjustments to better support you.

5. WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

Our goal is to provide guidance to companies, community leaders, and educators to make computer security more approachable for everyone by better understanding the stengths and weaknesses of the community. We will also enter all participants into a raffle for a 1 in 20 chance to win one of 25 $50 Amazon gift cards as a way of saying thank you for your time.

6. WHAT HAPPENS IF I DO NOT WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

Nothing, you can just ignore this survey. Your information will not be recorded. Also, if you choose to participate, but change your mind later, you can withdraw at any point and we will delete any collected data.