How To Make Learning About Cybersecurity Interesting And Fun

Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important with each passing year, but do you know the reason behind its rising popularity? In today’s digital society, data holds insurmountable power. It is the cornerstone for achieving commercial success. However, the growing importance of data has its risks.

Importance Of Cyber Security

Information is much more vulnerable than ever before, and with entire business infrastructures revolving around data, the risks faced by businesses can result in heavy financial losses. Data shows that small to medium enterprises are the prime target for cyber-attacks, with 46% of all attacks impacting small-scale businesses. But it’s not just business data at risk; all personal or professional data are extremely valuable to these attackers. The news is rife with stories of massive data breaches and identity theft affecting millions.

It’s high time businesses prioritize cybersecurity to ensure continued business growth and success. And what better way to protect your small business from malicious cyber attacks than mastering cyber security? With cyber security, you can protect your business infrastructure and data networks from harm caused by hackers. Among the various ways to learn more about cyber security, joining a cyber security bootcamp online is one of the most efficient ways to learn how to shield your data from exploitation.

Four Ways You Can Make Learning Cyber Security Fun And Interesting

Below we have outlined a couple of ways to have fun while learning everything you need about cyber security. Keep scrolling to find out.

1. Incorporate diverse learning resources

Diverse learning resources are important to make the subject interesting. The average web user spends only fifteen seconds on a page before moving to the next. With various learning resources, you’re more likely to stick around longer and pay attention to your learning. Plus, what works for others may not work for you, so you can easily find out what works best for you.

Find online resources and programs with different training approaches and communication styles. For example, gamified training leverages leaderboards and rewards for achieving program milestones can make learning a lot more fun. Or if you want to achieve a quick grasp of the subject, microlearning courses are also a good choice as you can easily fit them into a hectic schedule without breaking a sweat.

2. Gamify your learning experience

Online courses are convenient, but they may be time-consuming and costly. One of the more fun and effective ways to learn cybersecurity is by adopting a gamified approach to learning and developing cybersecurity skills.

You can make learning exciting and interesting via a gamified learning experience. Gamification of learning combines game elements with interactive learning, making for a fun and engaging learning experience. Plus, you’re likely to learn more effectively, collaborate, improve productivity, and pay attention by leveraging a gamified learning experience and focusing on the screen.

Gamification in cyber security starts by introducing you to the problem and engaging you with the simulative and interactive aspects to further your learning and interest. Moreover, your desire to learn and excel in the game will translate into improved cybersecurity training and awareness.

Why spend a fortune on boring lectures if you can learn the same concepts from a fun game? Below we have outlined a few crowd-favorite cybersecurity games to improve your learning journey.

• Cyber Threat

Cyber Challenge is a video game developed by the United States Department of Defence that challenges players to counter cyber-attacks and learn about the many professions that constitute the military’s cyber security division.

• Cyber Lab

PBS developed an interactive action game you can only access via a web browser to help identify and resolve cybersecurity issues. You can participate in the game’s numerous situations to crack passwords, write code, and destroy evil hackers.

• picoCTF

Carnegie Mellon University’s privacy and security researchers created picoCTF. Players must reconstruct, crack, hack, decode, and apply their critical thinking abilities to overcome challenges and claim victory.

• Quest for the Lost Console

A collaboration between 1Password, makers of the popular password manager, and the gaming league Gen.G. Together, they developed a puzzle game for web browsers to help people learn safe methods for making and managing passwords.

3. Try personalized learning

Interest in learning wanes quickly if you cannot relate to the subject. Learning is not one-size-fits-all, so not every approach to learning will resonate with you. And a lack of diverse learning resources is the primary culprit behind the i-find-this-boring learning attitude.

Reading is different from experience. Far too many individuals are under the false impression that they are safe from phishing attacks and BEC scams, but such attacks are more common than you realize. You may think you’re too competent to fall for such petty scams and that you would be able to recognize a phishing email if you see one, but the reality is quite different. Unfortunately, hackers know that people lead busy lives, don’t pay attention, and are, by nature, trusting.

Adopting a personalized approach to learning and incorporating human-centered training modules, emails, and newsletters in your learning journey, that resonate with you, the lessons start to sink in.

4. Focus on content quality

The quality of your learning resources is another factor that can significantly affect your learning process. For anyone who consumes a lot of information daily, uninteresting, poorly written, and flat content isn’t going to cut it.

Hence, it’s always better to learn via high-quality content. Below we have outlined a couple of qualities that quality cybersecurity content has following qualities:

  • Created with an eye on adult learning theory and practice. You should seek out options for independent study, individualized coursework, task-based teaching, and “why”-oriented material.
  • Microlearning and nano-learning may reinforce security awareness messages with risk-specific knowledge.
  • It includes interactive real-world scenarios in which you can make choices and experience the results of those choices to facilitate fun in learning.
  • Positive, interactive, and inspiring gamified modules that supplement the instruction.
  • It considers how hackers tailor their tactics to the information they access when deciding how to best protect your company’s human resources department against your development department.

Bottom Line

Cyber-attacks are expensive. According to McAfee estimates cyber attacks on average cyber attacks cost around $22 million. Moreover, they can cost over $10 trillion annually, and the numbers will only grow if nothing is done. It’s evident from these statistics that cyber security holds a great deal of importance in modern times, which is why businesses need to focus on online safety and cyber security. Consider the above-discussed approaches to learn cyber security in a fun and interesting way and share your knowledge with those around you.