Résumé of the Gamified Increase in Security Awareness in German Small and Medium-Sized Businesses after Three Years’ Practice of “ALARM Information Security”
Keywords:
business research, information security, awareness raising, serious games, awareness training, on-site attack simulations, low-threshold security conceptsAbstract
The latest cybersecurity reports for 2023 again show a critical situation in IT security in Germany—in fact, the threat in cyberspace is higher than ever before. There can be no doubt that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to build their cyber resilience around their staff. Humans are becoming the key to increasing information security. Within just three years and under the difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Awareness Lab SME (ALARM) Information Security” project has developed a practice-oriented mix of methods in analog and digital form (serious games). All the tested materials have now been made available free of charge. The aim of the overall scenario was to promote the urgently needed operational awareness raising of executives and employees in SMEs. This article summarizes the key findings.
