Back

My name keeps getting mentioned in Top 10 infosec influencers lists, or Top[arbitrary number here] security professionals to follow. Here's the thing: The group responsible for all these "awards" has tried to get me to participate in their group activities (podcast interviews, etc. I always decline or ignore). But near as I can tell their top people lists have mostly the same people on them that have somewhat thin backgrounds in the cybers. So it seems to be some kind of circular promotion thing, possibly of the paid variety, which is not something I want to be associated with.

Some people say any publicity is good publicity, but I've never believed that. My instinct as I see these "awards" parroted by the people listed in them is to dig deeper into who the awards givers are. But in the meantime, my inclination is to send a polite note asking them to please not include me in their lists.

Is that a dick move? What would you do?