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Cybersecurity – A new perspective on training

Pixelhunters recently released a new platform for Multiplayer Team Training with its first module on Cybersecurity. What are the “WHYS” behind such an initiative?

Why did we select cartoon characters’ approach for cybersecurity adult’s training?

For a normal person, learning about viruses is a dry and boring subject. At the same time, with the increasing number of work processes now digitalized and vulnerable to hacking, it is essential that we or our staff recognize the dangers. Human error is still the biggest vulnerability with regard to cybersecurity breaches. Doesn’t matter if we have the best IT at work, most of us, we bring our computers at home and we connect our personal phones to the company network. It’s everyone’s responsibility to know how to protect against cyber threats.

Ransomware, malware, rootkit, DDOS, trojans, adware, spyware – all these are complex words, their meaning is difficult to remember, and it is even harder to distinguish them one from another.

Everyone likes cartoons, nevertheless if you are a kid or an adult. Cartoon characters can be fun and memorable, but essentially characters carry out a certain personality.

By giving the cyber threats a personality, we make the learning process easier, our memory more lasting and overall the training is much more enjoyable.

As cute cyber threats may look like cartoons, they are not to be underestimated. But only when we know and recognize threats, we will be best able to protect ourselves.

Why multiplayer team training?

Increasingly online e-learning platforms are trending to be less effective than before. The need for constant learning and improvement in order to meet the dynamics of the contemporary economy is rising, at the same time, learners are becoming less passionate and motivated about training. Online videos and self-tests are no longer keeping people fully engaged.

Team-building-based educational environments are proven to be more productive, fun, and better at creating positive outcomes.

The main benefits of multiplayer team training:

  • Providing knowledge to employees on complex topics with increased efficiency
  • Stimulating creative learning in a fun way while results are measured without the need for over-testing
  • Combining active and passive learning elements
  • Retaining higher levels of information due to gamification
  • Driving a positive competition environment & team building

Is gaming only for kids?

Video gaming is no longer a hobby exclusively enjoyed by the young. New generations have grown up with video games as a normal part of life. According to the latest statistics of 2019, the average gamer’s age is 34 with 70% of all players being 18+ years old. There are more than 2.5 billion video gamers around the world and the gaming industry is expected to reach $180.1 billion in revenue by 2021.

Why game-based education?

Having into consideration the constant raise of the age of game players, gaming being part of our daily life – it is a normal evolution to consider that gaming must be included in the educational process as well. Our brains that are used to high dopamine production stimulated by video games, if we are exposed to traditional learning environments, we might find them boring and non-effective. When we have fun and are engaged by the subject, the retention of the information is 10 times higher than any other way of learning. Then why we shouldn’t consider game-based education more seriously?

Games driven by knowledge – how this can be fun?

Of course, educational games are ways much less fun than purely entertaining games, but they are still a better choice than the traditional or the self e-learning courses on an online platform. Our motivation towards learning is hard to maintain over time, we are lacking time, attention and memory skills, but at the same time, the current era we live in is constantly demanding our self-improvement. The balance of personal fun time vs the work time is strongly compromised by the demand for better performance and increased competitiveness.

Then why not create a tool that can help to this balance by providing a fun time while actually learning?

When we play games and compete vs someone, our perception towards “learning being boring” can be shifted towards the intrinsic motivation to perform well and win. Everyone likes winning the game and if the vehicle that drives your success forward is the knowledge, then what is more natural than putting slightly more effort to master the subject?

This is what we do with the Cyber-mons – we inspire people to learn in a fun way while unconsciously mastering the topic in their pursuit of the game goal.

What do you believe you do differently than the other cybersecurity pieces of training?

First, we have selected a very unconventional way to deliver knowledge about cybersecurity threats. Providing interactive, visually based, and multiplayer setup of learning.

We rely on team building bonds, positive competition, the excitement of winning vs long training videos, long readings, and hard to digest information.

The whole concept of the project is to drive behavior change – when we get engaged to the learning and are “trapped” into multiple repetitions of the information, the knowledge gets a harder stick into our brains and will naturally lead to the desired behavior change. There is a lot of motivation and psychology behind games and what better tool than games which the main goal is to make people following rules voluntarily and being happy about it.

Benefits of digital play vs board training games?

Recently we can see some board training games on paper and classroom environments. While we are living in a digital era, we have decided to use the advantages of digital in comparison with the paper methods.

The paper board games are great but the user experience is mainly tracked if we finish completely the game with little records on the user’s personalized behavior. Being digital means that we can precisely track human training behavior, analyze it, guide in the learning process, and personalize.

Is Cyber-mons game logic suitable for kids?

Kids are born with games and yes, the Cyber-mons logic is equally well working for kids as well. We have adaptable content to suit very large age groups, from 7 to 77 years old.

Cybersecurity content very often is very strictly related to company policies that do not fall under standard cybersecurity training. How do you address this challenge?

Cyber-mons is actually a solution that is based on our Multiplayer Team Training Platform. We can easily customize the content with the client’s custom content, being in cybersecurity or in any other topics where training managers see the need for more effective and fun training. Also, we handle multi-language integration.

And mostly – the project is AR (augmented reality enabled)

How to learn more about the product?

You can email us at info@pixelhunters.com and we will get in touch with you with more information regarding your interest in using or distributing the product.