Leveraging VR/AR/MR/XR Technologies to Improve Cybersecurity Education, Training, and Operations

The United States faces persistent threats conducting malicious cyber campaigns that threaten critical infrastructure, companies and their intellectual property, and the privacy of its citizens. Additionally, there are millions of unfilled cybersecurity positions, and the cybersecurity skills gap continues to widen. Most companies believe that this problem has not improved and nearly 44% believe it has gotten worse over the past 10 years. Threat actors are continuing to evolve their tactics, techniques, and procedures for conducting attacks on public and private targets. Education institutions and companies must adopt emerging technologies to develop security professionals and to increase cybersecurity awareness holistically. Leveraging Virtual/ Augmented/Mixed/Extended Reality technologies for education, training, and awareness can augment traditional learning methodologies and improve the nation’s cybersecurity posture. This paper reviews previous research to identify how distance and remote education are conducted generally, and how Virtual/Augmented/Extended/Mixed reality technologies are used to conduct cybersecurity awareness training, cybersecurity training, and conduct operations. Finally, barriers to adopting these technologies will be discussed. Understanding how these technologies can be developed and implemented provides one potential way of overcoming the cybersecurity workforce gap and increasing the competencies and capabilities of cybersecurity professionals

Gamification of Cybersecurity Awareness for Non-IT Professionals: A Systematic Literature Review

This literature review delves into research on the gamification of cybersecurity awareness for non-IT professionals, aiming to provide an accurate report on known and unknown information regarding three key questions: the impact of gamification on cybersecurity awareness interest and engagement, measurable results related to game elements and their connection to specific learning goals, and the long-term effectiveness of gamified cybersecurity. Examining five relevant papers, the findings confirm short-term effectiveness and indicate that the incorporation of various game elements, such as storytelling, team leaderboards, and interactive scenarios, results in increased knowledge, improved engagement, and positive behavior changes aligned with specific cybersecurity awareness learning goals. However, the review also identifies recurring gaps in evaluating individual game elements and customizing gamification strategies for non-IT professionals. Highlighting a critical gap in understanding long-term effectiveness, we argue for further empirical studies to consider habituation effects, emphasizing the need for a nuanced understanding of gamification's impact on cybersecurity awareness over an extended period. Thus, the review contributes to the existing body of knowledge by emphasizing the necessity for empirical studies focusing on sustained, long-term effectiveness and habituation effects in gamified cybersecurity initiatives

Realidade Aumentada e Sensibilização Social

O presente trabalho de projeto visa estudar a reação do público à junção de realidade aumentada com mensagens de sensibilização social. Dada a inovação e novidade que carrega a tecnologia de realidade aumentada e verificada a sua utilidade em variadas outras áreas como medicina, marketing e comércio online, é pretendido aferir a sua viabilidade no contexto de campanhas de sensibilização social. Para o efeito, é prototipada uma experiência digital. A viabilidade da utilização da tecnologia virtual é estudada por meio do preenchimento de questionários para comparação entre dois grupos experimentais expostos à mesma mensagem de sensibilização social sobre saúde mental utilizando meios diferentes: um exposto à realidade aumentada e outro, o meio mais convencional, exposto à leitura de um panfleto impresso. Os resultados provam que a utilização de realidade aumentada mostra-se promissora na propagação, impacto e interiorização de mensagens de sensibilização social.This project work aims to study the public’s reaction to the combination of augmented reality with social awareness messages. Given the innovation and novelty that augmented reality technology carries and verified its usefulness in several other areas such as medicine, marketing and online commerce, it is intended to assess its viability in the context of social awareness campaigns. For this purpose, a digital experience is prototyped. The feasibility of using virtual technology is studied by completing questionnaires to compare two experimental groups exposed to the same social awareness message about mental health using different means: one exposed to augmented reality and the other, the more conventional method, exposed to reading a printed pamphlet. The results prove that augmented reality shows promise in the propagation, impact and internalization of social awareness messages

Design and Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Game for Cybersecurity Awareness (CybAR)

The number of damaging cyberattacks is increasing exponentially due in part to lack of user awareness of risky online practices, such as visiting unsafe websites, ignoring warning messages, and communicating with unauthenticated entities. Although research has established the role that game-based learning can play in cognitive development and conceptual learning, relatively few serious mobile games have been developed to educate users about different forms of cyberattack and ways of avoiding them. This paper reports the development of an effective augmented reality (AR) game designed to increase cybersecurity awareness and knowledge in an active and entertaining way. The Cybersecurity Awareness using Augmented Reality (CybAR) game is an AR mobile application that teaches not only cybersecurity concepts, but also demonstrates the consequences of actual cybersecurity attacks through feedback. The design and evaluation of the application are described in detail. A survey was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the game received positive responses from 91 participants. The results indicate that CybAR is useful for players to develop an understanding of cybersecurity attacks and vulnerabilities