Gamification Techniques for Raising Cyber Security Awareness

TL;DR

This paper explores using gamification, specifically a role-playing quiz app, to improve password security awareness among average users, showing positive engagement and perceived benefits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel gamified Android app for password security education and provides initial evidence of its effectiveness in raising security awareness.

Findings

Users enjoyed learning through the app

Participants felt they benefited from gamification techniques

The prototype showed promise for broader security education

Abstract

Due to the prevalence of online services in modern society, such as internet banking and social media, it is important for users to have an understanding of basic security measures in order to keep themselves safe online. However, users often do not know how to make their online interactions secure, which demonstrates an educational need in this area. Gamification has grown in popularity in recent years and has been used to teach people about a range of subjects. This paper presents an exploratory study investigating the use of gamification techniques to educate average users about password security, with the aim of raising overall security awareness. To explore the impact of such techniques, a role-playing quiz application (RPG) was developed for the Android platform to educate users about password security. Results gained from the work highlighted that users enjoyed learning via the use of the password application, and felt they benefitted from the inclusion of gamification techniques. Future work seeks to expand the prototype into a full solution, covering a range of security awareness issues.