A conversation with EyeOn: boosting security awareness with gamification

We spoke with Dan Roozemond, data science lead at EyeOn, about boosting the security awareness of employees with gamification — and how he organized a cyber security week to get the entire team aligned with the importance of cyber security.

Dan, can you tell us a bit about EyeOn and your role?
Absolutely. I’m Dan, data science lead at EyeOn. EyeOn helps large companies, on an international scale, with supply chain challenges in planning , forecasting, and more. We have about 100 employees in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, and the United States.

Can you explain why cyber security is important for EyeOn?
We need to protect our daily activities as well as we can. That is essential for us. We have access to a lot of confidential customer data. Our customers trust us with that data and we can’t let them down.

A fundamental principle for security is having the right policies in place and ensuring our daily behavior is in line with those. Last year, we invested a lot of time and effort in bringing our security to the next level. An example is aligning the organizational processes to become ISO27001 certified. If everything goes according to plan, we will receive the certificate at the start of 2024.

Why did you decide to organize a cyber security week?
It’s twofold. On one hand, we wanted to organize a fun and interactive way to increase security awareness among our entire staff.

But it also has something to do with our ISO27001 certification: being certified comes with many responsibilities for our employees. This means we have to make our staff aware of cyber threats and be able to show that we’re doing enough to do so. That’s how the idea came about to organize a cyber security week.

Sounds great! How did it go?
We started every day with an interview of 15 minutes and called that the safety catch-up. Every day had a specific theme. The first one was called ‘from desk to destination’. This was all about security measures during traveling, such as using a safety screen, storing your laptop safely, and so on. Another theme was all about confidential data, which is what we called ‘how to not get in trouble with the SEC’.

On the third day, we talked about cyber security threats such as CEO fraud. On the last day, we talked about the importance of our ISO27001 certification and articulating its value to our customers and prospects: Because our customers are asking about it, it’s important to show them that we take that seriously.

Each day, we came up with challenges that employees could take on to score points. During the confidential data theme, employees could score points by cleaning up their downloads folder. At the end of the week, we rewarded the winners with a big trophy and a small gift in the form of a chocolate key.

What role does Guardey play in making employees at EyeOn more security aware?
Our employees play Guardey’s weekly challenges to learn more about cyber security. During the cyber security week, you could score the most points by taking on Guardey’s challenges. In the game, you can make money for your fictional company by answering questions correctly. That money all counted as points during the cyber security week.

How did the employees respond to all the activities?
The responses were great. The team was proactively involved, attended the daily sessions, and also took on the challenges. It made for a good vibe within the company. The team enjoyed playing the Guardey game and many felt compelled to keep playing it, which is a great sign.

I already noticed the effects a couple of days after the cyber security week. People are pointing out security issues that they didn’t spot before. It shows that they are becoming more aware of the importance of security.

How did EyeOn make it happen?

Here’s what EyeOn did to successfully introduce the importance of cyber security within the organization.

Offer weekly training via Guardey
By playing Guardey’s security awareness game, employees learn about cyber security in 3-minute challenges. Over time, this drives lasting behavior change.

Organize a cyber security week
To get the team onboard, EyeOn organized a cyber security week that got the entire staff excited to learn more about cyber security.

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