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If you’ve been keeping up with the AppSec world recently, you’ll have noticed that it’s all a bit in a frenzy between the AI wreaking havoc and the legacy tools struggling to keep up with the demands.
The sudden emergence of ChatGPT created an amazing tool for developers to speed up their processes. Still, with that, it also amplified the secure coding practices issues as it proved that the AI tools don’t really keep security in mind when generating their code.
It’s in this exact environment where you need to amp up the focus of your employees on security because the pitfalls are everywhere.
Importance of Education
Even though most employees would be reluctant to complete those somewhat boring and time-demanding educational tasks, it’s something that has to have a priority in 2023. And it’s not just the developers that have to go through this, either. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link – and this rings especially true in the cybersecurity world – implying that you cannot put any single one of your employees aside and have them ignore the safety measures.
This is where gamification of the educational AppSec content comes in. It allows for a fun experience and competition, creating an environment where educating and learning come naturally, without a lot of added effort and pressure.
Fantasy… AppSec?
If you’ve ever played fantasy sports with your friends or colleagues – as I sure have – you’ll know that it amplifies the match-watching experience. Well, the same rings true with AppSec. If you had means of poking fun at each other, competing, and creating a flourishing atmosphere, all while actually learning and making your company safer by the day, that would be a nice combo, wouldn’t it?
We at Bright looked at this issue and found that learning while having fun is a way more attractive proposition than just staring at the content without stakes or rewards at hand. This approach allowed us to develop our cybersecurity skills and create bondings within the teams as a direct result of competing and working together.
Looking For Security Champions
Gamification of educational AppSec content can generate amazing opportunities, including potentially finding hidden gems within your companies. As we all know, the role of a security champion still isn’t a very refined one, and you may have a few potential candidates “hiding” in plain sight. By introducing a competition-and-award system, you might just find that someone you didn’t expect is a master of solving security-related issues, thus giving you a long-term in-house solution for cybersecurity problems.
Conclusion
We should all thrive to make our working environment a more fun and engaging place each day. Education through gamification hits an excellent balance between the things you could utilize for the long-term security of your company, while avoiding antagonizing your employees and colleagues by making them go through exhausting, and quite often, create a counter-effect of people just going through the motions without actually paying attention.
