CyberHero: An Adaptive Serious Game to Promote Cybersecurity Awareness

Abstract

The lack of cybersecurity awareness among everyday users is a significant issue that can have detrimental effects on individuals and organizations alike. Traditional training methods such as slideshows and presentations have proven to be ineffective and can cause trainees to feel overwhelmed, overloaded, confused, or bored. To address this issue, the development of an adaptive serious game that teaches cybersecurity in an effective, engaging, and personalized manner is proposed. Serious games provide an immersive and simulated experience that can help users determine how they might act in real-life scenarios. However, existing cybersecurity serious games often measure effectiveness outside of the game using surveys, tests, and interviews, which can lessen immersion and the simulated experience. Therefore, measuring improvement within the game itself can provide more meaningful data and derive truer conclusions about the usefulness of serious games in teaching cybersecurity. The goal of this research study is to develop such a game and measure its effectiveness in a way that can inform future cybersecurity training programs. By providing an engaging and personalized experience, serious games can improve cybersecurity awareness and reduce the risk of cyber threats. The results show that 79% of the participants admitted that they learned new things by playing the game, 84% said that they were engaged by the background story, 68% agreed that they had fun while playing the game, and 84% would recommend the game to others.