Study Description

We are interviewing people involved in designing and implementing incident response plans. Our focus is on how organizations develop incident response plans and how these might be used during cyber incidents. Our goal with this research is to help organizations understand how to develop these types of plans, how to train for cyber incidents, and what are some of the common hurdles that exist related.

If selected, you will be given a $40.00 Amazon gift card for a 45-minute interview via Zoom or phone call (whichever you prefer).

We are very flexible and happy to accomodate almost any requests! If a video-enabled platform is chosen for the call, video will not be recorded as it is not necessary for this study. We will protect the privacy of any information shared during the interviews. Participants may withdraw or choose to not answer any question throughout the interview. All gathered data will be encrypted and securely stored without any personally identifiable information, only accessible by the research team. Your anonymity will be protected in any reported results.

If you are interested in participating in this study, please click the button below to take a short (~5 min) screening survey to determine whether or not you are eligible.

If you would like to participate, but feel uncomfortable completing the survey, please email a member of our research team to discuss potential alternatives.

Researchers

Ron

Ron Thompson

PhD Student
Tufts University
Computer Science Department

rthomp06@cs.tufts.edu

Ron

Carson Powers

PhD Student
Tufts University
Computer Science Department

carson.powers@tufts.edu

Dan

Daniel Votipka

Assistant Professor
Tufts University
Computer Science Department

dvotipka@cs.tufts.edu

Josephine

Josephine Wolff

Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy
Tufts University
Flecther School

josephine.wolff@tufts.edu




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FAQ

Why are you contacting me?

We are interviewing people involved in designing and implementing incident response plans. Our focus is on how organizations develop incident response plans and how these might be used during cyber incidents. Our goal with this research is to help organizations understand how to develop these types of plans, how to train for cyber incidents, and what are some of the common hurdles that exist related.

Who are you?

A group of academic researchers who are passionate about cybersecurity research as well as improving how organizations can prepare for cybersecurity incidents.

What happens if I want to participate?

If you choose to participate, you can follow this link to take the survey, which will ask you a series of questions about your background and organizational structure. We will invite a subset of the survey participants to participate in online interviews. Your responses will be analyzed anonymously, and we will publish anonymous aggregated results in peer-reviewed, academic publications.

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. We are also very flexible regarding the communication mehtods used. We only need to collect audio recordings of our conversation, but how we do that is completely up to you. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact any member of our research team and they can discuss specifics and make any particular arrangements to ensure you are comfortable.

What’s in it for me?

Our goal is to provide guidance to companies, regulators, and the larger community about how organizations plan for cybersecurity incidents. We will also give interview participants a $40 Amazon gift card as a way of saying thank you for your time.

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.