It all started with the question that is probably bothering most trainers, teachers, and anyone who has ever delivered a technical workshop before the major shift to remote work over the past two years. How do I deliver technical workshops virtually and still keep my learners engaged, intrigued, and most importantly learning?
Orca Security immediately realized that having a full one-day or two-day workshop as usual – but this time virtually – was simply not going to cut it.
People do not have the patience to sit two full days in front of their computer, and it does not matter how engaging the lecture or trainer is, especially when taking into consideration that they don’t have to be there.
A new way to transfer knowledge to cloud security teams
So what can we do to engage learners? The first option was to reduce the material to fit a two or three-hour session.
However – that immediately was scratched off due to the fact that in this format, the learning objective will not be met by the student and they will not gain any real value out of these sessions.
The second option was to rethink the entire process of teaching and learning and desired outcomes.
Working for a startup such as Orca Security allows me the opportunity for trial and error testing. I took some lessons I’d prepared for a technical marketing event, and thought – let’s test how education and knowledge transfer in a helpful format that enhances security team interaction in a hands-on event.
Good idea. I knew I had the why and the what, but I was still missing the “how.” How do we reward learners for their time invested in learning the Orca approach to cloud security?
The old way of standing in front of an audience for days simply did not work anymore.
I began looking into more engaging ways to have my audience have fun and still be actively learning by using the Orca Platform in real-life applications so they can see for themselves exactly what this powerful technology can do for them.
Upleveling the security user’s experience through gamification
Gamification came to mind. This is a nice buzzword, but we needed a way to immerse the audience into the Orca Platform experience in order to quickly demonstrate meaningful outcomes.
We looked at several gamification solutions, but nothing really checked the important boxes from an administrative standpoint or the fun and immersive user experience standpoint.
Finally, after several pilots with our internal teams, we’ve landed on an advanced cloud security demo that is fun and educational. Interested teams can sign up for an immersive experience in the Orca security platform – via videos and sound – and enjoy ‘capture the flag’ type games for blue teams.
Because our mission at Orca is to improve DevOps, SecOps, and Development team workflows, we invite everyone that needs to work together.
In this interactive experience, teams can learn how to advance strong security outcomes together in new, frictionless ways using Orca’s unified cloud security platform – without impacts to workloads, the SDLC, or the cloud security program.
Announcing Orca Security Cloud Camps
The new workshops, called Orca Security Cloud Camps, allow security teams to fully immerse themselves in the Orca Platform by:
- Researching and using forensic tools
- Investigating malware and attack paths
- Exploring robust capabilities embedded into one platform
- Understanding why context is important for alert prioritization
- Enforcing cloud compliance with improved security workflows
- Enhancing day-to-day security work using Orca’s cloud security tools, reporting, and capabilities
About the immersive workshops
Orca’s Cloud Camp workshops are divided into several modular pieces so that any trainer can break off pieces and present to customize their audience’s unique experience.
- The sessions are built from a short presentation and then the game commences.
- In order to complete the game and be successful, the user needs to answer questions and find hints in the Orca Platform.
- Winning the game depends on the number of right answers and the speed at which the user has answered them.
At the end of the workshop, each participant receives a Cloud Camp Ambassador badge which they can share on their social media accounts.
After running the workshops several times both internally and externally, we’ve come to understand that these camps are the right way to transfer knowledge.
Two takeaways I’ve personally seen myself in beta-testing the Cloud Camp user experience:
- Technical gamified sessions increase the confidence of the player/student. Embedded educational tools in the game help users advance their performance, knowledge, and savviness while tactically interacting with Orca’s platform. Leveraging this type of gamified workshop can help teams throughout the organization learn and set competency goals that advance security outcomes.
- New learners across the organization can get in the game to improve cloud security together.
These sessions are an invitation for all involved technical professionals new to Orca Security to see how a cutting-edge cloud-native platform can solve complex cloud security issues in seamless ways.
Not everyone involved in security will know how the platform can effectively replace disparate cloud tools currently in use throughout the organization. To share the knowledge, we invite them to see how it works.
From compliance, asset inventory, vulnerability management, alert prioritization, shift left and container scanning, and malware detection, Cloud Camps are proof-positive of how one single cloud-native application protection platform can advance team workflows and security outcomes.
Improve Cloud Security Outcomes, One Cloud Camp at a time
How people are exposed to new technologies and the patience they have to learn about it has greatly changed. Let’s be real – people don’t have time for it.
As enablers of better security outcomes, we have to change with the times and share with our respective audiences the information they need in order to be successful in their day-to-day work and overall decision-making.
We have an obligation to make people’s lives easier – but let’s have some fun while we’re doing it.
Security gamification within the Cloud Camps demonstrates Orca’s commitment to improving the security user’s experience through learner engagement. Cloud Camps are focused on improving the day-to-day life of security teams – and we use this novel gamified format to have some fun while we’re at it.
At Orca, we’ve found that cybersecurity gamification in a technical workshop is the way to go to help everyone – from the CISO to the DevSecOps Engineer. Security leaders and DevSecOps professionals working in cloud-native environments, migrating to the cloud, or managing multi-cloud environments are welcome to join in this interactive experience with their security teams and stakeholders.
Sign up today
Interested in learning more? Those who are intrigued by this innovative and fun approach to learning how Orca delivers cloud security can register for the upcoming virtual workshop here. See you all there!
Interactive leaderboard shows team members’ advancing real-time in the game
Training Dashboard tracks team progress on ‘Capture the Flag’ scenarios they’ve successfully won
