Enhancing Security Awareness Through Gamified Approaches

TL;DR

This paper tackles the vulnerability of smart grid systems to cyber threats by focusing on the human factor through security awareness training (SAT). It proposes a gamified SAT prototype built on Root the Box to train smart meter users across three difficulty levels, evaluating participants via staged, scenario-based MCQs. Results show substantial learning gains (up to 40%, 35%, and 29% across beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels) and increased engagement when hints are provided. The work demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of gamified cybersecurity education in smart grid contexts and suggests its potential applicability to other domains.

Abstract

With the advent of smart grid (SG) systems, electricity networks have been able to ensure greater efficiency and utility by interconnecting their grids through cloud-based technology. As SGs become increasingly complex, a wide range of security challenges arise, threatening the grid's reliability, safety, efficiency, and stability. The security challenges include the potential exposure of personal data due to hackers intercepting the communications between the SG infrastructure and the smart meters. Security awareness plays a vital role in addressing some of these challenges. However, the traditional training programs are no longer efficient for instilling information security culture in organisations or from an individual user perspective. Gamification is a new concept in the field of information security awareness training (SAT) campaigns that can be introduced to fill in this gap by providing employees with a means of practising and learning about many security flaws and risks that exist within the organisation. Thus, this paper examines the effectiveness of gamification in promoting security awareness among smart meter components for smart grid users/operators. A gaming application is developed as part of the study with the aim of training and evaluating the results through three difficulty levels of questionnaires. Furthermore, the results are evaluated for the three difficulty levels as well as the overall flag captured. It can be demonstrated that the scores of participants in the three levels have improved by 40%, 35% and 29%, respectively. This reflects the awareness of learning within our system.

Figures (9)

• Figure 1: Interfaces of box section of designed system.
• Figure 2: Interfaces of box section of designed system.
• Figure 3: Interfaces of Question flag section of designed system.
• Figure 4: Difficulty levels of the Questionnaire design of the suggested system.
• Figure 5: Examples for the gaming interface of the designed system.