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As I said in a previous post, Data Visualization skills are a must in today’s business environment. I don’t think there is any industry that would not benefit from it.

My industry – Security and Risk – is for sure one of the first to benefit from Data Visualization. As a Security and Risk professional, I have a lot of data, information, intelligence and all sort of insights that I must share with my decision-makers on a daily basis.

I realize now that in order to illustrate to stakeholders the reasons behind the mitigation solutions I recommend, there is hardly a better way other than using the most appropriate visual representation. The more the stakeholders understand my reasoning, the more chances I’ve got to make them understand the security risks our organization is exposed to and the more likely it is to get my suggestions embraced and approved!

Whether I draw a basic route on Google Maps, import a .kml into Google Earth, plot coordinates into MapHub or create a pie chart in Tableau out of a .csv, those that listen to my recommendations can now see and understand what these are based on! And guess what? Most of my recomendations go through because they are understood! Not all, but most of them….It is an improvement!

I don’t need lenghty and wordy explanations to make the decision-makers understand the security risks and the solutions to minimize them. All I need is a few words backed up by maps, trends, charts, graphs, images and videos. I keep my intelligence products brief and visual. Our Security and Risk Industry must take full advantage of Business Analysis concepts and of Data Vizualization tools.

Visualization helps me to help my organization!

Disclaimer: The Viz embedded in this article is not security-related. It is just an example I used following along with the public training video found at: https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/resources