Among the many roles that gamification can play, it can instill employee interest in cybersecurity. Gamification in information security is related to the practice of naturally instilling interest in employees to learn, master, and carry out a set of practices that can reduce the general risk of cyber invasion of an organization.
One of the issues currently concerning companies worldwide is protecting their data in the cyber environment.
Organizations have been strengthening their technologies and implementing strategies to defend against attacks and crimes in this sphere. Among several possibilities, gamification proves to be a great ally in information security.
In this article, we’ll explain how this methodology can be adopted to improve company data protection and avoid problems — such as scams and viruses — later!
Technology And Security: A Necessary Relationship
The popularization of the internet brought a series of benefits to society: information just a few clicks away, breaking physical and even temporal distances, and thousands of possibilities that make our lives easier in different spheres, such as personal, social, and professional.
However, with this movement, the negative side also came: viruses; blows; false information; attacks, and thousands of other types of cybercrime increased as the number of users grew. It’s not just people who suffer from these problems — companies also face this challenge when entering the online universe.
As much as technology and its opportunities, such as digital transformation, are advantageous for business, it is necessary to know how to deal with these risks to prevent the consequences of this dark side of the internet.
Fortunately, a number of solutions can help companies of all sizes and market segments protect their data from attacks and scams, thus avoiding dozens of future problems.
Adopting security tools — such as antivirus and other more sophisticated possibilities — is essential, but other bottlenecks in this situation need to be resolved.
And gamification can contribute precisely to some of these gaps.
What Is Gamification?
To understand how the terms “gamification” and “information security” are related, it is first necessary to delve into what gamification is.
Gamification, is the practice of adopting tools and mechanics generally used in entertainment for other everyday occasions, intending to generate motivation, engagement, dynamism, and dedication in the proposed activities.
This is possible because these didactics innovate in sharing any subject, having the ludic as its center, a characteristic generally not seen in certain environments, such as the corporate sphere.
The tools adopted in the gamified process generate a sense of achievement, evolution, and conclusion and are ideal for promoting learning and solving problems.
Gamification And Information Security
One of the main gateways for cybercrime is user failure. Out of ignorance and often unintentionally, many people end up accessing malicious content and links on the web, installing spyware and viruses on their equipment and even those of the company where they work.
This is the biggest bottleneck that concerns information security professionals in all parts of the world, as this small flaw can generate major problems such as theft of data, including sensitive data, and scams in bank accounts and credit cards. Thus, not only financial losses are caused, but also strategic ones for the company.
Problems like these don’t just affect the world’s largest corporations — even small businesses can suffer the consequences of a security breach in their operations. Therefore, this issue should be a concern for all companies and HR’s.
Train Your Employees For Cyber Threats
In addition to implementing security systems and other technological tools, all companies must train their employees to know how to deal with technology correctly and not fall into traps that could harm their organizations.
Corporate training can educate employees on the best information security practices, identify scams and viruses and other risky situations, and help to preserve the organization’s equipment and data. This way, the chances of cyber attacks and area problems are reduced.
And it is in this context that gamification becomes a great ally of information security. This methodology has been adopted by companies around the world in their corporate education strategies, making actions such as corporate training more efficient.
But how does this happen? Gamification uses elements common to games to encourage people to perform certain actions or change behaviors, thus generating substantial positive impacts in their lives. Resources such as storytelling, scores, and rewards are applied in an educational dynamic to motivate employees to carry out training.
Gamification In Practice
Instead of just adopting lectures, merely expository activities, or simple communications with safety tips, which can go unnoticed by employees and make the experience even monotonous, using gamification in training can increase employee engagement in action.
Just imagine: instead of just explaining that clicking on unsafe links can infect the company’s computer with viruses, imagine a game with villains, points, and missions that help teach the employee about these threats: a much more fun activity, no?
By offering an immersive and interactive experience, employees will associate study time with something positive, thus increasing their engagement and strengthening the knowledge acquired in the dynamic.
Also Read: Data Security: How To Safely Dispose Of It