An Electronic Fairy Tale . . .

The search for a poster that was “just right!”
Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . .

WARNING: If you’re short on time, this article is rather silly. . .

Once upon a time, there was an eager information security consultancy named infotex, who had many many favorite Clients.  One day, in a woods not far away, one of our favorite Clients is now being quoted as saying:

“Dear infotex, my dear infotex, do you have an awareness message I can use to address the notion of not sharing passwords?”

– Goldilocks!

to which we responded, “of course.”  We found some old-fashioned text messages that can be used in an email blast, but we thought for sure Goldilocks would be able to find a visual in our “poster library,” which you can always access for free at posters.infotex.com.

So we replied to Goldilocks:

“Dear Goldilocks, oh Goldilocks, we, of course, have text messages for you!  Using electronic mail, you can send one or two!  And here’s suggestions on what to tell, and how to get your users to actually open up the message, as well!  And don’t forget our past reflections, where we proposed you provide awareness in all directions.  And don’t forget that we have found, visual messages go a lot further than email messages, and are more profound.  And so your own attempt doesn’t bomb, you can find posters to that effect at posters.infotex.com.”

– infotex

But alas!  Poor Goldilocks quickly got back to us, and pointed out, much to our surprise: we had nothing!!  An evil laugh could be heard in the background, as we realized, we had nothing about sharing passwords in our archive!

Such a common, important subject, relating to the most violated HIPAA standard (Unique Account IDs), and we had nothing!  Nothing!

So we turned to Sofia, the Sender of Signs!

Sofia, Sofia, the Sender of Signs!  Can you come up with something about sharing passwords.  And quick!!

To which Sofia the Sender of Signs turned to her Endpoint.

(She logged into an asset, and then another.  She used a what you know factor, and a who you are a factor also tracked her.  She used a what you have factor and even a where you are a factor, which is like a what you have factor based on where you are!

Finally, she logged into the Magical Asset.)

And there, she quickly brought up her Sign Designer and she blinked a “presto” . . . and she quickly produced a poster . . . . Little Red Riding Hood, (to be released in June).

And so Goldilocks looked at the poster in landscape form, and then Goldilocks looked at the poster in portrait form.  She smiled but then said,

“Oh infotex, oh infotex, while this one is excellent, and would make a great poster for my office, I can’t put something like this on the branch.  It’s too dark.”

That was when I got involved.  I said to another, a bystander, “we need something for the branch.  The branch!  Something that could be put in the branch,” I said.  And then I added, “Make it funny!”

So Sofia the Sender of Signs went to work for another minute or two, and we heard something like “hocus pocus” come out of her office, too!  Then “presto,” . . . a “funny” poster, we think, came through . . .

(This one will be released in July, by the by.)

And so Goldilocks looked at the poster in landscape form, and then Goldilocks looked at the poster in portrait form.  But Goldilocks replied:

“LOL, that’s funny, but gee.  I wonder if I can get you to see:  While this one would make a great poster for our restrooms, I would NEVER be allowed to put something like this in our branches.”

.

So we returned to Sofia the Sender of Signs, who was tired of coming up with all these designs.

But she smiled and blinked, and it looked like she thought, and she did indeed come up with a “light” poster, at least that’s the way we like to boast of her.

(Which is our release for May, by the way.

<—- Just click on the image to the left,

if you’ve not already guessed!)

And then Goldilocks looked at the poster in landscape and portrait form, and with the hope that her branch manager would conform, Goldilocks then replied:

“That’s just right.”

The end.

Original article by Dan Hadaway CRISC CISA CISM. Founder and Managing Partner, infotex

“Dan’s New Leaf” is a “fun blog to inspire thought in the area of IT Governance.”