Some might call this an infographic, but I lean more toward “poster”. The project owners wanted a very visual, colorful, didactic explanation of a process that is usually a bit dry. After being posted by Dan Williams, an IT security influencer on LinkedIn, this has been downloaded a surprising number of times.
This looks a lot better viewed as a PDF – 5 Steps for IT Security Controls.pdf
I also did a Powtoon’s version of this focusing on the comparison of IT Security to home security.
Backstory
The task was to illustrate a set of steps outlining IT Security Controls that would normally not be very visual or colorful. With a more diverse group of people being concerned about IT Security in their workplace, this graphic was intended to reach out to a wider audience and raise awareness. Rather than reading a nested bullet list of best practices, each step is made memorable with its own illustrated story.
Challenges
The usual issues – trying to come up with imagery for abstract concepts like protection, awareness, access, and other properties of IT security. IT Security itself is not very graphical. The steps were researched and identified by an IT professional. My task was to turn them into something that would draw a viewer in and be easy to digest. The steps needed to stand on their own as well as work together as a group – vertically or horizontally.
Strategy to avoid what could go wrong.
I templatized the layout so your eye would always find the titles of the main steps in the same location on each panel. The Pro-tip panel includes extra details and appears with the same treatment and placement as well to keep information organized. Within each panel, a story needed to be told that had a clear start and finish.
Here’s a detailed walking through of the thinking:
Take Stock panel uses a checklist as the grounding element and pointing off to imagery of the various elements on the list. The hand-drawn white arrows stand out in contrast to the logos and hardware images.
Protect Your Periphery panel – the author was thinking of a ladder to represent the sequence of steps within the main step. So as not to be too literal, I used a set of diverging lines against a classic network node depiction on an oval that suggests both network and cloud. The same arrows are used to call out milestones along the way. “Start with your networks” in bold at the bottom left, orients you to the starting point of the graphic. Circling around clockwise you are back to Pro-tips.
Restrict Access – there are a lot of levels operating at once in this panel. Internal and External, Virtual and tangible with Systems and Data for each. Plus, overarching goals and milestones. Using barb-wire and razor ribbon borders to delineate the systems and information and transparent cloud overlays to show the external equivalents, a lot of information is mapped into one relational view. A transparent overlay holds the checklist without disrupting the boundaries created by the fencing below. Familiar arrows call out milestones.
Prepare for the Eventuality – uses a lot of drama to show ongoing threats – hacking, weather. The metaphor is to be prepared for this journey should it happen to you. Shown in order using near to far perspective are signposts quickly highlighting, and elaborating on steps to take for best recovery.
Awareness & Training – this final panel emphasizes the importance of educating all the stakeholders. The background circle indicates that this is circular and ongoing – trying to place text and images around the circle would be cluttered and hard to read. With a left-aligned and clearly numbered list, your eye goes through the steps in order. The larger ideas are called out on the left.
What went right?
A lot of useful and serious information is being communicated in a relatively small, fun, easy-to-read manner. The graphic has been downloaded numerous times on LinkedIn with likes and comments like this, from Sekhar Sethuraman | Security Education and Training, “These infographic materials could result in greater success in security implementations to innovate security evangelists. Sincere appreciation for sharing these.”