Training Title:

Agent Surefire - Infosec

Training Format:

Serious Games / Training Simulation

Storyline:

The user taking the training is playing the role of Agent Surefire, a highly reputable special agent of Information Security Authority, also known as "ISA". ISA is an auditing organization which evaluates the level of corporate information security conformance for companies who request their services.
Agent Surefire receives a coded message from his/her superior that a company; Limetree Inc. is to be audited by ISA, and that he/she is the investigator.
Agent Surefire's mission is to go to the company HQ after working hours and carefully survey the office and identify any Corporate Information Security vulnerabilities. Other than high level executives and key security personnel, no one in the building knows they are being audited. The office that will be inspected has been left untouched by maintenance staff and the surroundings are just the way the employees left it.
As part of Agent Surefire's mission, he/she must accurately identify and log evidence from at least 70% of the total number of security violation categories. [Minimum score needed to complete the training. The percentage is customizable – see Technical Documentation, "Customization" section]
As a bonus play, the story is laced with a "mole" leaking sensitive documents to the company's largest competitors. If Agent Surefire can find solid evidence confirming this, he/she will have solved the most challenging puzzle in the game. [A challenge designed to invoke curiosity and further exploration which result in continued training with added repetition]
When Agent Surefire accepts the mission, he/she proceeds to the Limetree Inc HQ to be met by the security manager. This sequence reveals more of the story and sets the stage for the game.
The opening sequence messages change according to player's course through the game. If Agent Surefire has not reached any new checkpoints in the last session, upon returning to the game, the opening sequence is skipped and the game restarts directly from the office view.

Quick Start & Learning Curve:

It is in our Clients' best interest to reduce the time it takes to familiarize the player with the game controls.
To tighten the learning curve and get the training started within minutes, the game offers three kinds of active support:

1. During the opening sequence, the player is given the option to see audio-visual instructions on navigating around the game space and marking violations discovered.
2. At the start of the training, inside the virtual instructions office, the player may opt to see step by step guided ("Environment Help" feature) that replicate the directives of a real trainer, standing over the player's shoulder.
3. Roll-over pop-up definitions and tips that show up as the player moves the mouse over visible items.

For a more personalized experience, all the support options may be deactivated or skipped should the players prefer to explore and acquaint themselves with the game environment.

Environment:

The environment is a highly realistic virtual office (see image below for a bird's eye view) in which the player "walks" around in four directions (North, South, East and West) either by sidestepping or turning 90o.

The player's interaction with the game environment is supported by sound effects which add to the realism.

There are 15 workstations, 1 meeting table and whiteboard, 5 pin-up boards, 10 cabinets, 3 closets, 2 printers, 1 scanner, 1 shredder, 1 recycle bin, 1 safety box and several flower pots in the office.
Each workstation has a computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, telephone, trash bin, 3 drawers and a shelf.

Interactivity:

• Computers and monitors
  • The information shown on the monitors may constitute a violation. Monitors need to be tagged for violations, not the PC.
  • PC may be switched on if presently in off position, allowing access to peripherals like CD drives etc.
  • CD drives, floppy drives on the PC and other back-up drives may contain media. They won't function until the PC is turned on.
  • Screensaver may be turned off by clicking the keyboard or mouse.
• Telephones
  • Calls may be made by lifting the handset and simply dialing.
  • The voicemail service may be accessed with pre-programmed button or by dialing the service number
    [7777 - Customizable – see Technical Documentation]
    Audible Instructions on how to access voicemail messages are heard once the player finds the 4 digit PIN code for the voicemail. The phone may only be tagged for violations after finding the PIN code.
  • To get an external line to make local calls, dial 9
    [Customizable – see Technical Documentation]
  • To make intercity calls, dial 1 after getting an outside line
  • To make international calls, dial 011 after getting an outside line
• If not locked, cabinets and drawers may be opened and items inside may be examined.
• Keys found in the office may be used to unlock matching drawers and cabinets. Collected keys displayed in the Keys Panel may be dragged and dropped on to drawers and cabinets to unlock them. Some of the drawers and cabinets are already unlocked and not all are accessible.
• Small boxes may be opened to reveal items inside.
• The lid of scanners and laptops may be lifted to show what's inside.
• There are documents, folders and notepads to be examined page by page, some of which represent violations.
• Clicking on the ripped papers inside trash bins triggers a "puzzle" interface which allows the player to put them back together and read the contents.

Objective of the Game:

There are more that 550 objects in the office that can be tagged while approximately 20% of them have information security violations associated with them.
The player navigates around the office, investigating desk tops, computers, telephones, shelves, drawers, cabinets, closets, printers, scanners, trash bins searching for objects and documents creating information security violations. When found these items are tagged by pressing the "Tag Button" [see "Tools" and "Tagging" sections below for details] and choosing the violation category.
There are hidden clues around the office that, when put together leads the player to the proof that a mole is leaking sensitive documents to the company's largest competitors. This is the coveted bonus play with the largest score in the game.

Training Completion:

Each time the player tags an item, a training screen pops up, presenting concise training materials on the violation category of the tagged item, as well as any item-specific pointers. As the player encounters multiple items with security violations from each category, he/she advances through his/her training.
The training is complete when all the training materials have been given to the player, as he/she comes across at least one violation from each category.

Success Criteria:

The player must accurately identify and tag items from at least 70% of the total number of security violation categories to be considered successful. [Customizable – see Technical Documentation]

Game Scoring:

Each item in the simulation which constitutes an information security violation has an associated point score. [Customizable – see Technical Documentation]
Once an item is tagged and matched with a violation category, the accuracy of the match determines its point score. At this point a flag is placed on the item for reference.
Table below shows points earned and their relative flags.

Tools:

A control panel is used to interact with the environment. The following tools are present in this panel:

Navigation:

The compass in the middle of the control panel shows which way the player is facing in the room. The buttons around the compass are for navigation:

Turn 90O left.

The arrows allow player to sidestep without changing direction.

Turn 90O right.

The Tag Button and the Tagging Action:

The Tag button is located to the left of the compass. When the player suspects a violation, he/she clicks this button to activate the tagging function, then the item itself. When active, the Tag button has a glow effect around it. Once the item selection is made, the violation category pop-up window appears, allowing the player to select the matching violation category.
If the current view is in Focus Mode the category list is shown directly when the Tag button is clicked.

After the player makes a choice from the list, a training screen pops up, providing the key lessons on information security vulnerabilities created by this violation. Some items in the game have additional tips and warnings specific to the player’s recent actions.

Support Panel Button:

By clicking this button, the Support Panel is revealed, which contains the following options:

Control Panel Tool Tips: This function toggles small info boxes identifying the buttons on the control panel. They appear when the mouse pointer is rested over a button for 1 second.

Object Definitions: This function toggles the pop-up names of visible items in the office. It’s designed to help identify an item without closer inspection. It also helps users notice smaller interactive items.

Keys Panel Button:

	Key is not yet found or collected.		The key is in the inventory. Click on “i” to see what it opens.
	The background of a key flashes when the associated lock is in view.		The key has already been used, thus no longer in the inventory.

Settings Panel Button:

Settings that can be modified in this panel are:

	Volume Control - Click on the colored bar to set the volume level.
	Muting - Click on the small speaker icon to toggle muting.
	Refresh/Reload Page - Use this button to reloads/refresh the view if needed.
	Notepad - This allows the player to take notes for later use. This function is only present on compatible LMS servers.
	Message to Admin - Sends a message to the e-trainer. This function is only present on compatible LMS servers.

Pause Button:

The player may pause the game at any time by pressing this button. Time counter stops when the game is paused. Similarly, the time progress is paused automatically when a panel is opened, or when tagging function is active. The amount of time spent in pause mode is separately recorded.

 Exit Button:

This button opens the “Exit Screen” displaying game statistics and exiting options. The information is both on the current session and the overall training progress, and includes:

• The distribution of the discovered violations based on accuracy.
  (Green, Yellow and Red flags)
• Ratio of categories correctly identified among violations found
• Total score
• Score if all the cases were marked with the correct category
• Game time
• Pause duration
• Training completion percentage
• Training success percentage
• Bonus status: Shows if the player has found enough evidence to uncover the mole.
• Number of cases yet to be found and the points that can still be obtained.

Saving the Game Data

It is important to save the game data before exiting the game. So the players must click on the Exit Button or walk out of the door of the office and click on the related buttons on the “Exit Screen”.
On the “Exit Screen”, the player may choose to exit the game after saving current session data to the LMS.
If the user chooses not to save the data, only the last session data is discarded. Any game data that was previously saved remains unchanged on the LMS.
The game automatically saves a recovery copy of the game data each time the player tags an object. If there is a loss of power, unexpected LMS connection problems or if the browser window is accidentally closed, next time the player starts the game, he/she is asked to choose between the automatically saved recovery data or the previous session’s data.

Information Panels

The following information panels are shown when the center of each dial is clicked. From left to right:

Training Completion Panel

This panel shows the completion percentage and success rate of the player. When open, the violation category list is also shown with color coding to indicate under which categories the player was able to find violation instances: