Title:
A Survey of Serious Games for cybersecurity Education and Training
Authors:
Winston Anthony Hill Jr., Mesafint Fanuel, Xiaohong Yuan, Jinghua Zhang & Sajad Sajad
[All from the North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University]
Published:
Proceedings of the KSU Conference on Cybersecurity Education, Research & Practice, 23 October 2020
Abstract:
Serious games can challenge users in competitive and entertaining ways. Educators have used serious games to increase student engagement in cybersecurity education. Serious games have been developed to teach students various cybersecurity topics such as safe online behavior, threats and attacks, malware, and more. They have been used in cybersecurity training and education at different levels. Serious games have targeted different audiences such as K-12 students, undergraduate and graduate students in academic institutions, and professionals in the cybersecurity workforce. In this paper, we provide a survey of serious games used in cybersecurity education and training. We categorize these games into four types based on the topics they cover and the purposes of the games: security awareness, network and web security, cryptography, and secure software development. We provide a catalog of games available online. This survey informs educators of available resources for cybersecurity education and training using interactive games.