Using gamification can help improve an organization's overall security while making security a fun endeavor Chief information security officers (CISOs) and corporate security teams are tasked with defending their organization and its assets that contain data that is highly confidential and extremely sensitive. Now, imagine being in the position of responsibility in protecting this kind of data every second. This task is made especially difficult due to the fact that threat actors are constantly trying to obtain unauthorized access via leaked passwords of employees, misconfigurations in their public-facing infrastructure, misclicks on phishing emails or the ever-present problem of the software vulnerabilities. This means analyzing hundreds of millions of signals every single second. This is not a human-scale problem.

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Think of the craziest thing you could do to convince the most qualified candidate to accept a job offer. Would you meet them in Second Life over a virtual cup of coffee? Would you approach them through Tinder? These gamification scenarios might sound a bit crazy or ahead of time. But allow us to say they're not.

Analysts at ESG and the Information Systems Security Association (ESG/ISSA) estimate 70% of organizations have felt the pinch of talent shortages. A survey by The Center for Cyber Safety and Education (CCSE) noted there's a global shortfall of 3 million skilled personnel, leading nearly 60% of respondents to say their organizations are at moderate to extreme risk as a result. At the same time, there continues to be an uptick in cyberattacks and data leaks. Risk Based Security reported the first six months of 2019 saw more than a 50% increase in breaches. Yet, further research by ESG/ISSA showed while skill shortages are "exacerbating the number of data breaches," close to two-thirds of organizations don't provide training to counter risks.

When a given task becomes enjoyable, people tend to work harder and perform better. Schools and teachers have been using this principle to heighten the interest of young students in early childhood care and pedagogy. Integrating games into traditional teaching methods have been significant in enhancing their understanding and preparing them better for the next grade. Companies across the world too have started seeing a lot of potential in the similar application of game-design elements in non-game contexts. This becomes extremely relevant in a time when millennials make for nearly half of the workforce.