Don't get hooked by phishing

Some laboratory employees recently received a fraudulent e-mail message that appeared to come from the U.S. Department of State.

The message informs the recipient that he or she has been chosen to participate in a diversity immigration program. It then asks the recipient for several pieces of personal information, including his or her address, passport number, phone number, marital status, age and occupation. It also asks for a participation fee of between about $500 and $800.

This is not a legitimate message. Although it looks real and could describe a real program, it is an attempt to steal sensitive information through electronic communication, a technique known as phishing.

Several clues should let you know that you cannot trust this message.

First, the sender purports to work for the State Department. But the e-mail address to which it asks the recipient to send information ends in .com, not .gov, meaning that it is not registered at a government domain.

Second, the message is not logical. If you have been selected for a spot in a diversity immigration program, the State Department should already have your information. And you should not have to pay a fee if you were chosen.

If you receive a similar e-mail and want to check on its legitimacy, you can call Fermilab's Visa Office, x4203, to ask about it. You can also report it to the Service Desk at x2345 or by e-mail at computer_security@fnal.gov.

On TARGET: Matt Bajzek

TARGET program intern Matt Bajzek stands next to equipment in Industrial Building 1, where he spent his summer editing magnet testing documentation.

Editor's note: This is the second Q&A in a series on TARGET program students. Tonisha Taylor, a TARGET student working in the Office of Communication, conducted the interviews. The six-week TARGET program ended Friday, July 31, but the interviews represent the students' perspectives during their time here. A program overview article and an article on the program's influence will appear in upcoming issues of Fermilab Today.View the first Q&A here.

Matt Bajzek is a rising senior at Waubonsie Valley High School who participated in TARGET, a program that aims to expose high school students from primarily, but not exclusively, underrepresented minority groups to physics and engineering. He worked with Cosmore Sylvester in the Techinical Division this summer.

Q. What is your job at Fermilab?

A. I revise, proofread and edit documents and spreadsheets for the magnet testing that engineers and scientists do in Industrial Building 1. As a result, I have become very familiar with the test set ups.

Q. How do scientists test the magnets?

A. Scientists and engineers set up 20 foot tall magnets that are placed vertically underground. They test the magnets to analyze their performance and safety, in the hopes of producing magnets with higher field strength to upgrade the Large Hadron Collider. They cool them down to about two Kelvin before they officially test them.

Q. What do you like best about Fermilab?

A. It is a strange place. There is not just science here. They have art galleries, buffalo and such a wide variety of people.

Q. What is your favorite science subject?

A. Engineering. I am still trying to decide what kind I want to do.

Q. What do you hope to get out of this experience?

A. I am hoping to get exposed to engineering and finally narrow it down to a field to go into later. I am getting a great understanding of all the different fields of engineering at Fermilab.

Q. What do you think of when you hear the word Fermilab?

A. I think of the stereotypical huge array of magnets just going and going to collide particles. Over time, that has changed after seeing all of the buffalo and nature at the laboratory.

Q. If you could make one scientific discovery, what would it be?

A. I would like to find an energy source that is efficient, safe and that is able to replace oil to get our country out of debt.

Students build cosmic ray detector

From UPI.com, August 3, 2009

Four Miami-area high school students have an unusual summer job on their resumes: building a cosmic ray detector alongside nuclear physicists.

The four participated in a six-week paid internship with Florida International University's physics department, selected from a pool of top student applicants, The Miami Herald reported Monday.

"It was a little overwhelming at first," Alyssa Indart, 17, told the Herald. "But we learned not to be intimidated by anything -- not even particle physics."

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