Experiential Learning or Direct Training: Fostering Ethical Cybersecurity Decision-Making via Serious Games
Pages 262 - 272
Abstract
Achieving secure cybersecurity systems requires a dual focus on technological aspects and human factors, both of which raise questions around ethical decision-making. While the objective is to ensure the comprehensive security of cybersecurity solutions, overlooking the ethical implications of decisions can lead to unexpected as well as unethical outcomes, giving rise to concerns aligned with basic ethical principles such as achieving benefits, avoiding harm, respecting choice, fairness, and transparency. To tackle this challenge, we have developed a serious game to educate cybersecurity participants to be mindful of the consequences of their decisions. All participants in our study engaged in experiential learning by discussing ethical dilemmas with non-player characters (NPCs) in this game. Additionally, half of our participants (training group) received explicit training in five ethical principles and undertook reflective activities. The control group did not receive this explicit training. We aimed to investigate whether experiential learning is adequate or whether additional explicit training in ethics is needed in this context. Analysis of pre- and post-tests revealed that both the training and control groups significantly improved their ability to recognise the importance of ethics after playing the game. The control group, receiving no direct training, performed equally as well as the training group in ethical decision-making. In analysing what made the ethical training effective, participants reported that virtual team discussions and choice/decision events were the most influential. The game will be further enhanced and evaluated in a future study.
References
[1]
Park, S., Lim, J., Kim, D.: The human factor of cybersecurity and the prevention and counter measures against cybercrime in South Korea. Webology (ISSN 1735-188X) 19 (2022)
[2]
Langner G, Furnell S, Quirchmayr G, and Skopik F Furnell S and Clarke N A comprehensive design framework for multi-disciplinary cyber security education HAISA 2023 2023 Cham Springer 105-115
[3]
Blanken-Webb, J., Palmer, I., Deshaies, S.-E., Burbules, N.C., Campbell, R.H., Bashir, M.: A case study-based cybersecurity ethics curriculum. In: 2018 USENIX Workshop on Advances in Security Education (ASE 18) (2018)
[4]
Jamal, A., Ferdoos, A., Zaman, M., Hussain, M.: Cyber-ethics and the perceptions of Internet users: a case study of university students of Islamabad. Pakistan J. Inf. Manag. Libr. 16 (2015)
[5]
Hodhod, R., Kudenko, D., Cairns, P.: Serious games to teach ethics. In: The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour Convention, pp. 43–52 (Adaptive and Emergent Behaviour and Complex Systems 2009)
[6]
Ryan, M., Staines, D., Formosa, P.: Focus, sensitivity, judgement, action: four lenses for designing morally engaging games. Trans. Digit. Games Res. Assoc. 2 (2017)
[7]
Aura, I., Hassan, L., Hamari, J.: Gameful civic education: a systematic literature review of empirical research. In: Proceedings of the 6th International GamiFIN Conference 2022 (GamiFIN 2022) (2022)
[8]
Westera W Why and how serious games can become far more effective: accommodating productive learning experiences, learner motivation and the monitoring of learning gains J. Educ. Technol. Soc. 2019 22 59-69
[9]
Luthar HK and Karri R Exposure to ethics education and the perception of linkage between organizational ethical behavior and business outcomes J. Bus. Ethics 2005 61 353-368
[10]
Cagle JAB and Baucus MS Case studies of ethics scandals: effects on ethical perceptions of finance students J. Bus. Ethics 2006 64 213-229
[11]
Gino F, Ayal S, and Ariely D Contagion and differentiation in unethical behavior: the effect of one bad apple on the barrel Psychol. Sci. 2009 20 393-398
[12]
Whitty M, Doodson J, Creese S, and Hodges D Individual differences in cyber security behaviors: an examination of who is sharing passwords Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2015 18 3-7
[13]
Kozhuharova, D., Kirov, A., Al-Shargabi, Z.: Ethics in cybersecurity. what are the challenges we need to be aware of and how to handle them? In: Cybersecurity of Digital Service Chains: Challenges, Methodologies, and Tools, pp. 202–221 (2022)
[14]
Treviño LK, Weaver GR, and Reynolds SJ Behavioral ethics in organizations: a review J. Manag. 2006 32 951-990
[15]
Gee, J.P.: What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Comput. Entertain. (CIE) 1 (2003)
[16]
Gee, J.P.: Learning by design: good video games as learning machines. E-Learn. Digit. Media 2, 5–16 (2005).
[17]
Hauge JMB, Pourabdollahian B, and Riedel JCKH Emmanouilidis C, Taisch M, and Kiritsis D The use of serious games in the education of engineers Advances in Production Management Systems. Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services 2013 Heidelberg Springer 622-629
[18]
Kolbe, D.A.: Experiential learning. New Jersey, Eaglewood Cliffs (1984)
[19]
Remington, T.F., Chou, P., Topa, B.: Experiential learning through STEM: recent initiatives in the United States. Int. J. Train. Dev. (2023)
[20]
Rege, A., Williams, K., Mendlein, A.: An experiential learning cybersecurity project for multiple STEM undergraduates. In: 2019 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), pp. 169–176 (2019).
[21]
Roshni M and Rahim A Small group discussions as an effective teaching-learning methodology for learning the principles of family medicine among 2(nd)-year MBBS students J Family Med. Prim. Care 2020 9 2248-2252
[22]
Maudsley G and Strivens J Promoting professional knowledge, experiential learning and critical thinking for medical students Med. Educ. 2000 34 535-544
[23]
Sansare, V., Ryan, M., McEwan, M.: Oscillatory Design to Develop Moral Engagement Through Systemic Play (2023)
[24]
Formosa, P., Wilson, M., Richards, D.: A principlist framework for cybersecurity ethics. Comput. Secur. 109 (2021).
[25]
Sadeghi B et al. Modelling the ethical priorities influencing decision-making in cybersecurity contexts Organ. Cybersecur. J.: Pract. Process People 2023 3 127-149
[26]
Stanton, J.M., Stam, K.R., Mastrangelo, P., Jolton, J.: Analysis of end user security behaviors. Comput. Secur. 24, 124–133 (2005).
[27]
Jones TM Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: an issue-contingent model Acad. Manag. Rev. 1991 16 366-395
[28]
Sadeghi, B., Richards, D., Formosa, P., McEwan, M., Hitchens, M.: How to increase ethical awareness in cybersecurity decision making. In: ACIS 2022, pp. 1–11 (2022)
[29]
Ryan, M., McEwan, M., Sansare, V., Formosa, P., Richards, D., Hitchens, M.: Design of a serious game for cybersecurity ethics training. In: DiGRA 22, pp. 1–18. Digital Games Research Association (2022)
[30]
Norman G Likert scales, levels of measurement and the “laws” of statistics Adv. Health Sci. Educ. 2010 15 625-632
[31]
Gosling SD, Rentfrow PJ, and Swann WB A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains J. Res. Pers. 2003 37 504-528
[32]
Ryan RM, Rigby CS, and Przybylski A The motivational pull of video games: a self-determination theory approach Motiv. Emot. 2006 30 344-360
Recommendations
Situational influences on ethical decision-making in an IT context
Processes of ethical decision-making are thought to depend on the issue faced when making the decision. We examined the processes by examining student's reactions to five scenarios involving IT use. Data were collected using a questionnaire following a ...
Moral intensity and ethical decision-making: a contextual extension
This paper explores the role of an individual's perception of situation-specific issues on decision-making in ethical situations. It does so by examining the influence of moral intensity on a person's perceptions of an ethical problem, and subsequent ...
Testing an ethical decision-making theory: the case of softlifting
There is a lack of both theoretical and empirical research on the process of ethical decision making in the domain of information systems (IS). As a step in this direction, we describe and test a general ethical decision-making theory developed in the ...
Comments
Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.Information & Contributors
Information
Published In
Apr 2024
315 pages
ISBN:978-3-031-58225-7
DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-58226-4
- Editors:
- Nilufar Baghaei,
- Raian Ali,
- Khin Win,
- Kiemute Oyibo
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Berlin, Heidelberg
Publication History
Published: 10 April 2024
Author Tags
Qualifiers
- Article
Contributors
Other Metrics
Bibliometrics & Citations
Bibliometrics
Article Metrics
- 0Total Citations
- 0Total Downloads
- Downloads (Last 12 months)0
- Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 13 Dec 2024