You Hacked My Program! Teaching Cybersecurity using Game-based Learning

Abstract

As cyberthreats become more commonplace, the teaching of cybersecurity concepts at an introductory level is becoming increasingly important. However, teaching this subject in an engaging manner is challenging. This work investigates the use of a game-based learning approach to teaching cybersecurity concepts in the form of a card game called Program Wars. Within the game, players use cards to create a representation of a computer program while launching cyberattacks at their opponents and defending their own program. As the initial version of the game presented cybersecurity concepts at only a high-level, Program Wars v.2.0 was created to introduce players to eight common cyberattacks and the tools used to defend against them. The results of a user study show that after playing Program Wars v.2.0 a player's knowledge of cybersecurity concepts is improved, showing that our game-based learning approach provides an effective means for introducing cybersecurity concepts to those with little or no prior knowledge. As Program Wars is a freely available web-based game, it can easily be integrated into classes to improve a student's knowledge of cybersecurity concepts.