Who uses OSA?

We have developed a few personas to help us think about OSA, and the needs of the community.

Steve, the corporate expert
  • Has a CISSP, works for a large corporation.
  • Worked for 5-10 years as security expert.
  • Needs to come up with some effective security designs in the projects he is involved.
Why Steve values OSA
  • In new projects Steve is often confronted with new or complex problem spaces.
  • He knows that referring to a best practice pattern will buy him credibility and will reduce the amount of peer review time that is required in his corporation.
  • Having a pattern that is based on NIST 800-53 will give him certainty that he has the best grounds for the discussions with the corporate auditors.

Madeleine, the consultant
  • CISSP, works for a large consulting company.
  • Heads up a security practice, is often involved in project security reviews.
Why Madeleine values OSA
  • She looks at OSA as “my visual checklist”.


Jose, the industry expert
  • Industry expert, has worked in many start-ups and vendor organizations.
  • Worked for many years in Security and Risk.
  • Wants to bring some of his experience to benefit the wider community and improve the state of security.
Why Jose values OSA
  • He looks at OSA as "my opportunity to contribute and improve the foundations of computing".


Srinivas, the student
  • Student who has not yet graduated from his Computer Science BSc.
  • Wants to to focus his final year studies for his course on Computer Security.
Why Srinivas values OSA
  • He looks at OSA as "my reference library on best practice".


Jackie, the IS professor
  • Professor who lectures on Information Security at a university.
  • She wants to create lectures that include practical examples that reflect relevant industry problems and solutions
  • She wants material that is freely available and is not tied to any industry or technology lobby.
Why Jackie values OSA
  • She regards OSA as "my source for current industry solutions"
  • She appreciates the OSA patterns for tutorials and lab work.

Where do our visitors come from?

As of 2021 our visitor profile covers a large part of the world as shown in the map below. The darker the colour, the more visitors. Help us get a complete coverage!

Last updated: Sept 2021