On the use of serious games technology to facilitate large-scale training in cybercrime response

As technology becomes pervasive in everyday life, there are very few crimes that don’t have some ‘cyber’ element to them. The vast majority of crime now has some digital footprint; whether it’s from a CCTV camera, mobile phone or IoT device, there exists a vast range of technological devices with the ability to store digital evidence that could be of use during a criminal investigation. There is a clear requirement to ensure that digital forensic investigators have received up-to-date training on appropriate methods for the seizure, acquisition and analysis of digital devices. However, given the increasing number of crimes now involving a range of technological devices it is increasingly important for those police officers who respond to incidents of crime to have received appropriate training.

The aim of our research is to transform the delivery of first responder training in tackling cybercrime.

A project trialling the use of computer games technology to train officers in cybercrime response is described. A game simulating typical cybercrime scenes has been developed and its use in training first responders has been evaluated within Police Scotland. Overall, this approach to the large-scale provision of training (potentially to a whole force) is shown to offer potential.