"SPOT THE MOLE" GAME FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES

What do employees in your company do when they see an unknown person without a badge? Do they let this person walk by undisturbed? Or do they approach them? The behavior of your employees determines the cyber resilience of your organization. The educational game "Spot the Mole" trains your employees to react professionally to unauthorized visitors.

WHY THE 'SPOT THE MOLE' GAME?

If your staff sees an unfamiliar face at the office, do they address that person? With a growing number of employees, higher turnover, and more people working remotely, it’s becoming harder for many employees to recognize who belongs in the office and who doesn’t.

We also see that employees are often to hesitant to approach strangers without access cards, because they don't want to be perceived as rude or insensitive - even though addressing strangers is critical to protect the company from unauthorized access, installation of malicious software, and physical theft.

Research from our psychologist Inge Wetzer shows that employees actually start behaving more securely when they build confidence in doing so. Safe behavior is not learned from a book, but is best experienced oneself. And behavior change anchors even better when there is a positive reward attached to it.

That's why we developed the "Spot the Mole" game. A fun, low-threshold challenge to recognize and approach intruders. This unique intervention combines behavior change techniques and elements of gamification.

How the game works

The game starts with a month-long communication campaign at your offices, to raise the awareness of your employees. At the end of the month, a “mole”—a social engineer—will visit your workplace. The first three employees who speak up and verify the mole’s identity win a dinner voucher. This way, employees are encouraged to address strangers to ensure a secure environment, without turning the office into a fortress.

Based on psychological principles

Participants enjoy this game. But it is also based on proven techniques to create behavioral change. Employees will be trained to recognize that social engineers may offer convincing excuses and will learn strategies to handle these situations effectively.

Employees might feel a barrier when confronting unfamiliar individuals at work. We use these three behavioral techniques to help them: acknowledging resistance, implementation intention, and freedom of choice.

The Spot the Mole game can be deployed individually, but is usually used as one of the interventions from the SAFE program by Secura.