Serious Games to Improve Privacy and Security Knowledge for Professionals: a Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This study explores the use of serious games (SGs) for teaching information security and privacy, focusing on their effectiveness in raising cybersecurity awareness among employees. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, guided by nine research questions: the publication trends, environments, intellectual property, game genres, mechanics, player profiles, and the effectiveness of SGs in improving employees’ cybersecurity knowledge. Which identified 17 relevant publications from an initial pool of 1,737 articles. The publications were analyzed based on factors such as publication trends, game scope, genres, mechanics, and player profiles. The findings indicate that while SGs have potential in improving security awareness, most of the identified games are in early development and testing stages, often involving small participant groups. A notable gap was found in the availability of SGs tailored for specialized sectors, especially healthcare, despite the growing need for security awareness in this field. This study contributes to the state of the art by highlighting this gap and calling for further development of SGs in critical sectors. The originality lies in identifying this underexplored area, providing a foundation for future research and development of more effective SGs for sector-specific cybersecurity training.