Inside the Mind of a Hacker: A Cybersecurity Game Like No Other

CyberCatch is a leading cybersecurity software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that specializes in enabling small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and other organizations to implement and maintain continuous cybersecurity compliance and readiness. By leveraging AI-enabled technologies and a unique compliance-to-risk mitigation approach, CyberCatch supports clients in staying protected against evolving cyber threats.

As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and insidious, organizations across sectors—healthcare, technology, manufacturing, government, finance, education, and more—face mounting pressure to equip their workforce with practical, high-impact cybersecurity training.

CyberCatch recognized the need for a training solution that not only addressed compliance requirements but also engaged learners on a deeper level, prompting behavioral change through realistic, immersive experiences. They were looking for a solution that could:

• Build cyber threat awareness across all roles and experience levels.
• Support compliance with evolving regulatory frameworks.
• Educate users on how to recognize and respond to phishing, ransomware, and social engineering attacks.
• Deliver an engaging, memorable experience for adult learners.
• Reduce reliance on internal resources through ready-to-deploy, off-the-shelf content.

What CyberCatch envisioned wasn’t just another security course. It was an experience that would train users to think like hackers, so they could act like defenders.

To meet the growing demand for impactful and scalable cybersecurity training, CyberCatch partnered with ELB Learning to develop HackOps, a first-of-its-kind immersive learning game designed to make employees cybersmart by thinking like a hacker.

Set in a cinematic, virtual reality (VR) world, HackOps places learners in the role of an undercover operative posing as a new recruit for a notorious hacker syndicate known as Dark Web Goat. Guided by shadowy characters like Uncle Lenny and an on-site handler named Hope, learners descend through multiple hacker levels, each floor more challenging than the last, to prove their worth while secretly learning how to prevent real-world cyberattacks.

This fully gamified, story-based experience fuses the adrenaline of a spy thriller with the strategic depth of cyber threat simulations. In this environment, learners are not just passive participants—they are actively engaged in the narrative of multi-phase cyberattacks and digital reconnaissance to:

• Identify vulnerabilities in public-facing assets.
• Craft and execute spear phishing campaigns.
• Exploit weaknesses in third-party systems.
• Exfiltrate data and simulate ransomware attacks.
• Understand and eliminate backdoor threats.

By operating from the hacker’s perspective, employees gain firsthand insight into how breaches occur—and most importantly, how they can be stopped.

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Key Features of the Solution:

• Immersive Game-Based Format: Combines storytelling, interactive puzzles, and ethical hacking scenarios to teach cybersecurity concepts in a compelling way. 
• Narrative Progression: Players level up through a hacker hierarchy, keeping engagement high and reinforcing skills at each stage.
• Practical Threat Simulations: Exercises reflect recent, real-world cyberattacks to make the learning relevant and applicable.
• Flexible Deployment: Delivered in a SCORM-compliant format, HackOps can be easily integrated into any LMS.‍
• Cross-Industry Relevance: Designed to meet the security training needs of sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, finance, education, and more.

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HackOps has redefined what cybersecurity training can look like and do. By merging behavioral science with game design, CyberCatch and ELB Learning have created a training experience that is far more than a compliance checkbox—it’s a transformative mindset shift.

Clients using HackOps report that the training:

• Dramatically boosts employee awareness of cyber threats and weak points.
• Helps participants retain complex concepts by “learning through doing.”
• Reduces security incidents by improving digital hygiene across the workforce.
• Captures learner attention through a one-of-a-kind spy-thriller format rarely seen in workplace training.
• Cuts down IT burden by eliminating the need for homegrown training development.

HackOps doesn’t just inform—it empowers learners to think like attackers, act like defenders, and operate like responsible digital citizens. Through this groundbreaking approach, CyberCatch is helping organizations turn everyday employees into cybersecurity warriors.