Nuclear Weapons--A Scary Infographic

As you already know, I appreciate a good infographic.
Unfortunately, I think many of the ones coming out recently are too jumbled, long and complex and read more like a "Megilla" (no disrespect intended).
I was a little surprised to find a infographic on Nuclear Weapons online, but then again it's not a "cookbook" and hopefully those are not being posted.
This one was interesting to me, not only because of the topic of weapons of mass destruction, but also because in 11 factoids, the graphics takes you through a pretty clear and simple overview of the subject matter.
No, its not getting into the physics and nuclear engineering depths of the whole thing, but at the same time, you have starting with the Manhattan Projects in the 30's, some nice history on the following:

• Invention
• Cost
• Types, both fission and fusion
• Testing
• Use
• Inventories, although based on recent articles on the 3,000 miles of Chines tunnels in the Wall Street Journal (25 October 2011) and Washington Post (30 November 2011), the Chinese number may be way too low--the WSJ based on Chinese media reports has it as high as 3,500!
• Even numbers "lost and not recovered"--11!--not comforting, who would've thought?

In the graphic, it would be interesting to see a breakdown by land-, bomber-, and submarine-based, (some nice graphics available for that) but perhaps a number 12 item on the infographic would've been getting too much in the weeds.
Also, a similar graphic for chemical and biological weapons while interesting, would be scary indeed.
(Source Graphic: here)

Nuclear Weapons--A Scary Infographic

Visualizing IT Security

I thought this infographic on the "8 Levels of IT Security" was worth sharing.

While I don't see each of these as completely distinct, I believe they are all important aspects of enterprise security, as follows:

1) Risk Management - With limited resources, we've got to identify and manage the high probability, high impact risks first and foremost.

2) Security Policy - The security policy sets forth the guidelines for what IT security is and what is considered acceptable and unacceptable user behavior.

3) Logging, Monitoring, and Reporting - This is the eyes, ears, and mouth of the organization in terms of watching over it's security posture.

4) Virtual Perimeter - This provides for the remote authentication of users into the organization's IT domain.

5) Environment and Physical - This addresses the physical protection of IT assets.

6) Platform Security - This provides for the hardening of specific IT systems around aspects of its hardware, software, and connectivity.

7) Information Assurance - This ensures adequate countermeasures are in place to protect the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and privacy of the information.

8) Identification and Access Management - This prevents unauthorized users from getting to information they are not supposed to.

Overall, this IT security infographic is interesting to me, because it's an attempt to capture the various dimensions of the important topic of cyber security in a straightforward, visual presentation.

However, I think an even better presentation of IT security would be using the "defense-in-depth" visualization with concentric circles or something similar showing how IT security products, tools, policies, and procedures are used to secure the enterprise at every level of its vulnerability.

IT security is not just a checklist of do's and don't, but rather it is based on a truly well-designed and comprehensive security architecture and its meticulous implementation for protecting our information assets.

Does anyone else have any other really good visualizations on cyber security?

(Source Photo: here)

Visualizing IT Security

Vizualize Yourself

I tried out this new visual resume online called Vizualize Me.

It is currently in beta, but it connects up with LinkedIn and pulls your profile, work experience, education, skills, and recommendations right from there.

You can edit the data in Vizualize Me and even name you URL--I named mine Andy Blumenthal.

There are also multiple themes for showing your information--although, I liked the default one the best.

And you can edit colors, fonts, and backgrounds, but I didn't go that far with it today.

The only problem with the program that I had with it was when I tried to refresh the visual resume after making some updates to LinkedIn, it got locked up.

While the program is still a little kludgy, I like the infographics used for this visual resume and I think it quickly and easily captures a person's professional and educational background.

Hope you like it too!

Vizualize Yourself

An Infographics Treasure Trove

There is an amazing web site for creating, sharing, and exploring information visualizations (a.k.a. infographics)--it is called Visual.ly

There are currently more than 2,000 infographics at this site; this is a true online treasure trove for those who like to learn visually.

The infographics are categorized in about 21 areas including technology, science, business, the economy, the environment, entertainment, politics, and more.

I've included an example, from the Social Media category, of an infographic called The Conversation Prism developed by creative agency, JESS3.

As you can see this infographic displays the spectrum of social media from blogs and wikis to Q&A and DIY sites--it is a virtual index of social media today.

What I really love about infographics is that they can convey such a wealth of information in creative and memorable ways.

Moreover, there is such a variety of infographics out there--basically these are limited only by the imagination of the person sharing their point of view and their talents in conveying that information to the reader.

As someone who is very visual in nature, I appreciate when the content is rich (but not jumbled and overwhelming), and when it is logically depicted, so that it is quick and easy to find information.

In the example of The Conversation Prism, I like how it comprehensively captures all the various types of social media by category, color codes it, and visualizes it as part of a overall communications pie (or strategy).

To me, a good infographic is something you can relate to--there is a aha! moment with it.

And like a great work of art--there is the opportunity to get a deeper meaning from the visual and words together then from the words alone.

The shapes and dimensions and connections and distances and colors and sizes--it all adds meaning (lots and lots of context)--I love it!

I could spend hours at a site like visual.ly learning about all the different topics, marveling at the creativity and meaning of the information being conveyed, and never getting bored for a second.

An Infographics Treasure Trove