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Escaping the monotony of cybersecurity training

By Nathan Rees

Digital Content & Copywriting Specialist

October 2024

As scams and other security breaches are getting harder to detect, keeping your team up-to-date on best online safety practices is critical to your business's digital safety. Cybersecurity training can be quite dull and complicated, making retention difficult.

We were approached by Layer8 Security, a Brisbane-based company that provides cybersecurity training and services, for assistance with their marketing. One of the primary elements that Layer8 focus on is the human element in cybersecurity (also known as the 8th layer of security). To improve the engagement of cybersecurity training and make it more enjoyable, Layer8 has incorporated escape rooms into their training.

Taking this chance, we tested Layer8’s escape room training, finding it very impactful, and would love to share the opportunity to try it with our clients. In this blog, we’ll discuss what Layer8 offers, our thoughts on the escape rooms, and how you can try it yourself.

Three people stand at a desk in an escape room. The space is lit with purple and blue neon lights

Cybersecurity through a different lens.

 

The biggest hurdles in cybersecurity training are retention and engagement. To overcome these, Layer8 gamified the training into a series of escape rooms. 

Covering a wide range of topics, the escape rooms provide an environment where participants can test security breaches without risking damage to systems. 

Topics covered in Layer8’s training can be tailored to the needs of your business, and include:

  • Proper password security
  • Email phishing scams
  • Securing sensitive data
  • USB device security
  • Rules for safely navigating social media
  • Remote work security
  • Physical security 
  • Social Engineering (the old-fashioned scam call)

These escape rooms can be done solo or in groups of up to 12, held in your conference room, at an event, or online using Microsoft Teams.

A team is gathered around a table in an escape room. A large timer is counting down on the tv

Escaping the room.

 

A few of us from CoBright were invited to experience the escape room with our friends at Comtel and Pivotal Data Solutions. 

Once we had all gathered, Layer8 set up the escape room and gave us a short brief on how the training works. We had several puzzles around the room covering various security breaches, such as a tablet with social media risks to decipher, a laptop with phishing emails to sort, and the dreaded unknown USB. With only 30 minutes to escape, we got right into it.

After escaping with 11 minutes still on the clock, we debriefed, giving everyone a chance to discuss the puzzles, how they were solved, and ask questions for a better understanding. 

Despite our group being three different companies, Layer8 hit the team-building nail on the head and did a great job bringing us together. Nothing in the training needed high-level computer knowledge, making contributions from less-technically savvy of equal impact to the IT professionals in our group.

We had a chance to talk to Darren Chapman the managing director of Pivotal Data after the training for his thoughts. When comparing his thoughts going in versus after the escape room, Darren said, “I wondered how interesting they could make the cybersecurity training. It was quite engaging and very similar to what you would do in a normal escape room, only with a cybersecurity theme.”

Darren mirrored our sentiments on the team building saying,

“It was really good that, even as three diverse groups, we just jumped into it and everyone split into different tasks and got a little bit of the puzzle dealt with. It was like we played in a professional soccer team, instead of school kids chasing a ball.”

Interested in trying it out?

 

We would like to offer our clients the chance to take on this challenge and are happy to organise sessions for those interested. 

The escape room can be modified to suit your business and the everyday risks you and your team would face. Layer8 also offer additional services such as phishing tests to help build your team's security awareness before and after the training.

If your team is keen, reach out to us!

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