Dates: November 2017 – March 2018
Lead researchers: Dr Manuel Maarek, Heriott Watt University.
Overview
The research investigated if serious games (games for which entertainment is not the main purpose) can help developers build more secure software. Results from the prototype game indicated that it did steer participants into focusing more on the security perspectives of their coding.
Policy implications
An EPSRC-funded follow-on project currently underway is looking to evaluate the approach of serious games for developer security as a result of these findings. It aims to produce a framework for creating serious games, a set of creative components and software components for secure coding as well as a series of games to teach secure coding to new coders. The research team plan to share these outputs with policy makers to advocate for the adoption of more secure software development practices.
Methods
Surveys
Find out more
The researchers created an online platform experiment for a coding-based game to engage and support developers with secure coding practices. It is available at: https://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/games-dcs/ External collaborators: Glasgow School of Art
Funders: RISCS
Follow on work: EPSRC Funded project. Serious Coding: A Game Approach to Security for The New Code-Citizens: https://tinyurl.com/impactofgamification