SiberX, Canada’s first cybersecurity escape room, aims to gamify education and teach citizens, businesses and governments safe behaviors
Mae Khamissa knows firsthand how damaging cyberattacks can be.
The longtime co-owner of Omar’s Shoes on Bayview Avenue received an email from hackers two weeks before Christmas 2022 saying they had broken into her system and would “completely shut us down” if she didn’t send them $30,000 in bitcoins, Khamissa recalled.
By working with a cybersecurity company, Khamissa was able to track down the hackers, saving money and further damaging data breaches.
“We’re on a better path now, but I can tell you, two weeks before Christmas, it was a nightmare,” she said. “We were very lucky that our personal customer phone numbers weren’t somehow stolen.”
“Then we realized how many businesses are affected and that there is no help for them other than filing a report. There is really nothing that can help businesses and we also realized how many people are not reporting these things.”
Enter “Canada’s first” cybersecurity escape room, says Mahdi Raza, founder of SiberX, a collaboration between the City of Aurora and the Markham-based cybersecurity training company.
Raza said the idea behind the escape room is to “gamify” learning and make an otherwise dry subject more exciting and effective as a learning tool.
“When we bring in that gamification aspect, people can interact directly with the actual environment. That’s what makes it really unique because people learn differently today, especially in this day and age. They can collaborate and form a team.”
Raza said the room has already had visitors from as far away as Toronto, and a number of “unique organizations” have stopped by as well. Raza said businesses and government agencies have expressed interest in visiting the escape room and using it as a learning tool, including the RCMP and CSIS.
He added that he expects a significant increase in visitor numbers in the fall as school classes will visit the escape room.
Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas estimates he receives well over 100 emails a day, with about 10 to 15 of them containing malware, phishing or other cybersecurity attack methods.
“There will be more and more attacks and if we are better prepared as a community, as a business community and as citizens, we will all be better off,” Mrakas said.
The SiberX Cybersecurity Escape Room is located at 15157 Yonge St. in downtown Aurora.
Further information is available online.
