Digital Detectives: A Serious Point-and-Click Game for Digital Forensics

As cyberattacks increase yearly, the ongoing scarcity of cybersecurity professionals and lack of knowledge about digital forensics (DF) are substantial challenges for organizations. One potential solution to mitigate the severe implications of cyberattacks is to increase DF. This work introduces a serious game called Digital Detectives, designed to educate students about DF activities and raise awareness for non-specialist employees. Players take on the role of a DF investigator tasked with probing a cyberattack on a fictional company. Players acquire practical knowledge, awareness, and skills through gamified evidence collection, attacker identification, tool usage, and data recovery. The game features AI-generated graphics and enables players to explore various places to gather evidence. Collecting items and engaging with mini-games, such as analyzing network activity, immerses learners in an interactive setting. The serious game's objective is to promote an understanding of the DF profession, thereby aiding in future investigations and cultivating awareness of behaviors that could contribute to security breaches. We evaluated the serious game with 36 students and found a significant increase in knowledge about DF and cybersecurity awareness. Simply put, Digital Detectives is a valuable tool to educate students in forensics and raise awareness for employees.