here’s the short and sweet of me getting access to a trove of cool data I’m definitely going to use for something. (don’t ask me what, I don’t know yet).
intro
on april 13th, I was looking for data for a work-related thing when I remembered greynoise existed. hadn’t checked them out in a while, so I opened their website, where I quickly found this:
https://www.greynoise.io/contact/vip
wait, I thought. yes, this sounds like me*. but the premise – full enterprise access for free, as long as there was no commercial usage – really sounded too good to be true. maybe this is just for big infosec influencers, I thought. well, let’s sign up and see.
not even an hour later, I got this email:
Hi Anna,
We would love to set up a time to chat to learn more about how you plan to use GreyNoise and answer any questions you may have for us.
Our VIP program is for students, academia, researchers, and nonprofits, and you seem to be a good candidate for it! I can even provision VIP to your account live on the call.
Looking forward to hearing back from you,
[name withheld for their privacy]
exciting! I scheduled an appointment for april 19th, the first day where they had an evening slot available.
and then I saw this tweet:
sounds like a coincidence to me! so, on april 19th, I went to london.
the event
I invited myself for lunch at a friend’s. I thought of including a photo but I don’t want to accidentally dox them – people are getting too good at osint these days – so thank you L for the asparagus risotto, you’re the best.
and then I got to the event, which was only nerve-wracking for the first fifteen minutes or so – a credit to both organisers and attendees.
here is how I got access:
- AM: hi! so, what do you do?
- AP: I’m a researcher! actually, I just asked for vip access a few days ago.
- AM: wait, you’ve asked- have we given it to you yet?
- AP: uh, no! I have a call scheduled for tonight!
- AM: well let me give it to you. I can do this from my phone! what’s your email address
- AP: it’s easier if I type it in!
- AM: ok!
- …
- AM: there you go. let’s do… one year.
- AP: thank you so much!
- AM: you’re welcome!
I had a really great time and went home unreasonably excited.
takeaways
I’ll be brief
- this event alone has confirmed the viability of London as a choice of city for my phd. what do you mean I can just spontaneously turn up at an event that has to do with stuff I want to research? I am so used to not being able to go where all the cool people are (see hacker summer camp, etc) that this felt very surreal. in a good way.
- Andrew is very cool (and so is Supriya!). also: anyone who gets excited rather than bored or puzzled when I talk about cables is automatically a friend. I do make the rules.
- one attendee described the work I do as “basically investigative journalism”. now this is something I’m going to have to think about
- greynoise seems like a really cool product if you are its intended audience (aka someone with a network to defend). I wouldn’t know though, I don’t have any network to defend. I tipped off a technical friend of mine, let’s see how he looks at it.
- it’s so much data and I am in love.
no, I have no idea what I’m going to do with it just yet.
but this is probably where my next deep dive is going to be. stay tuned, I guess.
p.s.
fun fact, I told a friend about this the day after.
- G: this is so cool! how did you get access?
- A: I… asked nicely?
hell yeah.
* I just want to say, I really appreciate that the researcher tier is called vip. I just think it’s a brilliant piece of marketing, kudos to whoever thought of that. researchers are so used to being overlooked that this very small thing registers as validation.
somebody save academia, because I’m not sure it’s going to save itself.