Cybersecurity serious games development: A systematic review

Abstract

Cybercrime tactics evolve alongside technology, prompting researchers to enhance cybersecurity training for diverse internet users. Serious games have been developed as modern training methods over the years. However, despite all efforts, cybercrime cases continue to rise. This motivated the paper to conduct a comprehensive review of cybersecurity game development from 2014 to 2024, using PRISMA guidelines. The type of games covered include serious games, gamification and entertainment games. The scope of the games studied cover basic or general cybersecurity knowledge and specific fields such as ethical hacking and computer networking. A total of 53 papers were identified and analyzed in this study. The analysis results showed that most cybersecurity games were developed for users who already possessed prior knowledge of the topics delivered, though there were quite a number of games targeting general internet users. The majority of the games seemed to focus on technical aspects more than human aspects by training users on technology-related topics such as hacking, network architectures, and more. Game design suggestions and potential features were also discussed in this paper. Considering game design aspects could help practitioners and researchers in the future when developing new games, the discussions in this paper could be beneficial in improving cybersecurity training efficacy and mitigating cybercrime risks.