The cost of a data breach, in terms of revenue, reputation, legal exposure, and operational disruption, can be devastating; 60% of small-and medium-sized businesses close within six months of experiencing a cyberattack. Meanwhile, the problem is growing rapidly especially because of changes due to COVID-19; global cybercrime costs are expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015.

“Cybercrime is a global problem,” says Drip7 founder and CEO Heather Stratford, “but in every organization, there is a very local potential solution: a vigilant, engaged, and properly trained workforce.”

Over 90% of all cyberattacks, notes Stratford, are executed using information from employees who unwittingly give away their system ID and access credentials to hackers.

The problem, Stratford says, is not just a lack of cybersecurity awareness training, but getting training that works to the people who need it in the way they will actually use it. Most training doesn’t actually accomplish anything, and the numbers prove it.

According to research from Forrester, she notes, over a third of employees who have had security awareness training still admit to disregarding security policies. Microlearning, says Stratford, which breaks content into bite-size chunks, has been demonstrated to produce much better results than the traditional lecture-followed-by-a-test approach, both immediately and in terms of longer-range retention.

An even more effective approach with today’s workforce, says Stratford, is a newly introduced solution. It is called Drip7. By combining microlearning with gamification, the program applies game design to cybersecurity awareness training to increase retention.

The most obvious parts of game design are points, awards, and leaderboards—but includes much more. Stratford notes that in a recent survey of nearly 900 employees, 83% of those who received gamified training felt more motivated as a result, while 61% of those who received non-gamified training felt bored and unproductive.

Drip7 is sold on a licensing basis, with over 80,000 users already licensed on the platform.