Examining the Contribution of Critical Visualisation to Information Security

This paper examines the use of visualisations in the field of information security and in particular focuses on the practice of information security risk assessment. We examine the current roles of information security visualisations and place these roles in the wider information visualisation discourse. We present an analytic lens which divides visualisations into three categories: journalistic, scientific and critical visualisations. We then present a case study that uses these three categories of visualisations to further support information security practice. Two significant results emerge from this case study: (1) visualisations that promote critical thinking and reflection (a form of critical visualisation) support the multi-stakeholder nature of risk assessment and (2) a preparatory stage in risk assessment is sometimes needed by service designers in order to establish the service design before conducting a formal risk assessment. The reader is invited to explore the images in the digital version of this paper where they can zoom in to particular aspects of the images and view the images in colour.