Create a team that is both engaged and safety conscious!

As a team leader, IT & web consultant, and adoption trainer, I had been working for 19 years when I noticed the interest of team members and trainees was fading. With my experience, I could transform dull information security training into exciting, captivating experiences. I began experimenting with various formats, with the PubQuiz format yielding the best results. With over 1100 successful PubQuizzes, I’ve managed to capture and maintain the attention of today’s easily-bored generation. All experiences and insights have been transformed into an effective InfoSec PubQuiz Pack.

Dutch Institutions such as the Ministry of Justice and Security, the Police, the Digital Trust Center, and the Center for Information Security and Privacy Protection have approved my PubQuiz format and content. They even offered it to their partners, including all municipalities in the Netherlands, telecom and IT companies, and tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Read here how I obtained approval from our government.

The duration of a PubQuiz typically is about 1 hour, sometimes extending to 1 hour and 15 minutes, contingent upon the size of your team and the level of interaction during the Quiz questions. The Quiz questions are designed to incite conversations, so it’s advisable to account for this interactive aspect. Clients have reported that this conversational element was the highlight, resulting in higher participation, especially during challenging sections. As a Quiz host, you won’t need to do much to ignite these conversations; they naturally evolve.

To ensure a smooth event, set aside an additional 30 minutes for preparation, as some participants might arrive early. It’s also recommended to remain for at least 30 minutes after the PubQuiz, as participants often like to share their experiences and express their enthusiasm for this engaging activity.

Your PubQuiz can be hosted anywhere, not just in the office. Some team members might even prefer a different location! They’re often more focused, less distracted by the daily routine, and feel more comfortable participating and sharing their security motivation/knowledge. Just make sure the location has good WiFi. 

After purchasing my InfoSec PubQuiz Pack, you’ll discover easy-to-follow guidelines for assessing the quality of your, or any offsite, WiFi.

To participate, players need a smartphone with enough battery life, as well as the Kahoot app. It’s also helpful if you inform them about the time and place, and -consider yourself- whether they should bring a good mood.

In the InfoSec PubQuiz Pack, you’ll find instructions on how team members can install and set up the app.

I’ll share a copy of my PubQuiz with your free Kahoot account. Kahoot is the platform where PubQuiz questions and content are hosted. With a free Kahoot account, you can play with up to 40 players simultaneously. By 40 players, I actually mean 40 devices (read: smartphones). If your team is larger than 40 players, and you don’t want to purchase a paid Kahoot, you can divide your team members into groups, and they can then participate as a group per device.

Here’s a handy example. A large part of my clients play with groups of about 80 people. Effectively, this would mean that two members share a device.

By the way, I recommend always playing in groups. 2-3 team members per group is super effective as the group then has to decide who is the team captain, who gives input, and who remembers whether a quiz question consists of multiple-choice questions. And all of this in the 30 seconds per Quiz question. Can you already see how engaging such a Quiz can be?

The Quiz covers a wide range of topics such as phishing, ransomware, social engineering, password management, and 2FA/MFA. Both business and personal cases are included to increase engagement. The idea is to turn participants into ambassadors of information security. They learn new things that can help them, their colleagues, and their personal lives.

Although my Quiz follows a successful, fixed format, you might consider making adjustments to your copy of the Quiz. However, you may not be able to save the Quiz with your free Kahoot account, as I’ve created a version with multiple-choice questions to make it even more engaging for team members. A free Kahoot account doesn’t have the multiple-choice question feature, so you might be able to modify your copy of Kahoot, but not save it.

Having said that, I recommend you to keep my version as it is. It follows a strong structure that I’ve used myself at least 1100 times as PubQuiz master and at least 200 times where prominent Dutch organizations, such as municipalities, government agencies, but also professional cyber security and privacy companies played along. As you can read on the website, the reviews are glowing and predominantly positive.

Another alternative might be; Suppose you still want to modify my version, then you can purchase a paid Kahoot account for less than $10 per month. You can adjust the version to your heart’s content.

Again, the standard version of my Quiz is of very high quality, it doesn’t need adjustments, but if you want, you can do so with a paid Kahoot account.

Absolutely, the PubQuiz can serve excellently as a “kick-off” for an internal security campaign in your organization. In fact, it’s recommended. Many of my clients start with a PubQuiz before proceeding with, for example, an ISO 27001 certification process. My clients Skal (Bioindustry) and Pivot Park Screening Center”(Drug Discovery) have done so.

Relevant anecdote: The Ministry of Justice and Security, the Police, Digital Trust Center, and Alert Online asked me to develop their version of PubQuiz Alert Online. For the kick-off of the annual Cyber Security Month in October 2022, I was asked to host the kick-off in Artis Amsterdam (one of the more famous zoos in the Netherlands), for all their partners (Ministries, Municipalities, etc.). You can see a reference source here on LinkedIn (you need to hit the translate button in LinkedIn), and you may notice me standing under the big screen as the PubQuiz Master.

Furthermore, you can see here (sorry, there’s no translation to English there) that my PubQuiz Alert Online version was published as a kick-off on the Digital Government site. “Digital Government” is the media channel for professionals working on digitalizing the government. You may recognize my voice in the video that I also made.

In short: Yes, indeed. It’s certainly possible to use your InfoSec PubQuiz as a kick-off for an (internal) security campaign.

Yes, this is a ready-made Quiz.
You certainly don’t need to come up with the Quiz questions and answers yourself. All of that has already been done for you.
Once you have purchased the InfoSec PubQuiz, you will receive a comprehensive Hosting Guide that walks you through hosting the ready-made Quiz step by step.

Here’s a brief breakdown of your time:

• 1.5 hours: Go through my entire InfoSec PubQuiz Pack and Host Guide.
• 1 hour: Reserve a location, check if it has a TV/monitor, connect your laptop, and ensure decent Wi-Fi, etc.
• 1 hour: Conduct a simulation or try it out alone or with a few colleagues/friends to get the hang of it.
• 0.5 hour: Use my teaser-image, and send it to your team members to generate excitement.
• 1 hour before the PubQuiz event: Be early at the location to set things up and prepare things like chips, and drinks, and perhaps showcase medals.
• 1 – 1.5 hours for the PubQuiz itself: It could take longer, depending on the size of your team and the amount of conversation the Quiz questions spark.
• 1 hour after the PubQuiz: Post-Quiz, you’ll likely need to clean up, and there are always team members who express their appreciation, give positive feedback, and feel newly inspired.

Of course, this is a rough estimate. Depending on your facilities and whether you’re hosting it externally, it could take longer or possibly shorter. What needs to be said is that it’s really relatively easy to set up and doesn’t have to take a lot of time.

Just focus on the added value it can bring to your team and that your team becomes enthusiastic and shows more engagement after this PubQuiz session. If you keep that in mind, then the time you invest is definitely worth it.

If you have extensive information security knowledge; great! You can add your own spin to it if team members have additional questions about a topic covered in the Quiz question.

If you don’t have extensive information security knowledge; that’s still great. With this InfoSec PubQuiz format, you don’t need to be an InfoSec expert.

No, you certainly don’t need to be a professional. The beauty of this setup is that anyone who wants to, can host the PubQuiz. Having additional information security knowledge can be helpful, but as a PubQuiz Host, you should see yourself more as a facilitator.

There are many organizations where the PubQuiz Host isn’t an IT professional or information security expert, but simply has a keen interest in it. What’s important is fostering an open and engaging session about the security cases that arise during the Quiz questions.

Start the PubQuiz by clarifying that you might not be an expert, but are there to facilitate a team-wide experience. It’s okay to state you’re not necessarily the expert and to refer to my info for correct answers. When faced with a difficult question, bounce it back to the team and foster a team-wide discussion.

Just to recap: As a PubQuiz Host, when an additional security question is asked, you should see it as a question to the team. Redirect the question to the team to formulate an answer collectively. This open session format encourages an environment where no one has to be the expert, but the team as a whole can answer any additional questions that arise. And that’s the real beauty of it all!

No worries if you’re not very tech-savvy. With this PubQuiz format, you don’t need to be. The main tasks you need to take on are connecting your laptop to a monitor or TV, testing your wifi for sufficient speed, and hitting the play and next buttons during the PubQuiz.

Many hosts who’ve used my InfoSec PubQuiz Pack report that the setup is simple and straightforward. It’s pretty much like sharing your desktop and navigating the web. In the InfoSec PubQuiz Pack, I provide a detailed, step-by-step guide to help you prepare. It also includes an extensive guide on how to play the quiz, the correct answers, and additional questions you can ask beyond the quiz questions to ignite even more engagement.

If you’re still hesitant, you can always ask another team member to assist you. But I’m confident you can manage, prepare, and execute the PubQuiz in your own way, regardless of your level of tech-savvy!

Technically, you can host the PubQuiz in any format you like. I personally advocate for a physical setup because it allows you to read your team members’ body language and respond accordingly. However, hosting online is entirely doable too; all you really need to do is share your screen.

A hybrid model is also an option, although, in my experience, this can present some additional challenges if you want to fully engage everyone. For those who are physically present, you can easily present the PubQuiz. For those dialing in online, you might need more audiovisual support to convey the reactions and feedback from those physically present effectively. If your physical environment is equipped with professional conference facilities, such as microphones and cameras, then a hybrid model is certainly a feasible option.

Personally, I’m a fan of making these sorts of occasions the focal point they deserve to be. Since it’s about your organization’s information security, you might consider having as many people attend physically as possible. But ultimately, it’s entirely up to you. The InfoSec PubQuiz format technically accommodates any setup.

Here are the steps you can expect after purchasing the PubQuiz Pack:

1. After purchasing, you will immediately see a page where you can download the components of the InfoSec PubQuiz Pack. The most important part is the Hosting Guide. It will guide you step by step on how to prepare and host the InfoSec PubQuiz.
   • At the same time, you will also receive an email with your invoice and a reference to the aforementioned page. This way, you always have a copy of the page where you can download the Pack components in your email.
2. You go through your Hosting Guide. It explains, among other things, how to create a free Kahoot account and how to access the InfoSec PubQuiz Kahoot Quiz.
3. After going through the Hosting Guide, I recommend holding a trial PubQuiz for friends or perhaps a select group of colleagues.
4. After holding a trial PubQuiz, you will host the InfoSec PubQuiz for the rest of your colleagues.

While it may seem like a lot, almost all hosts have reported that the steps are logical and don’t require much time. I’m confident you’ll find the process just as manageable and straightforward, joining the ranks of satisfied hosts who’ve walked this path before you.

To host the PubQuiz, you’ll need:

• An enthusiastic PubQuiz host (that’s you!)
• Engaged colleagues
• Internet connection/Wifi
• A screen or TV
• A laptop (or desktop with a browser) that can connect to the screen or TV
• A (free) Kahoot account
• Optional: Snacks, drinks, and perhaps medals or fun prizes for the winners.

And that’s all you need!

The quiz is hosted on Kahoot. Years of research and hosting over 1100 PubQuizzes myself, and observing another 200 PubQuizzes hosted by other organizations using my InfoSec PubQuiz Pack, have shown that Kahoot is the best platform to host quiz questions and foster a competitive element, including leaderboards.

Moreover, I know from a technical standpoint that *Kahoot.com and *Kahoot.it are allowed through the firewall in 99% of organizations. In my InfoSec PubQuiz Pack, I’ve included a guide on how you can assess your location for WiFi speed and/or if Kahoot is even allowed.

I’d also recommend you run a test at your desired location before purchasing my InfoSec PubQuiz Pack. Here’s how:

1. Visit https://test.kahoot.it/
2. On both your laptop and smartphone, perform the following tests: “Can I host a kahoot?” and “Can I play a kahoot?“
3. Both tests will tell you how many devices can play simultaneously after running the test. If Kahoot isn’t allowed on your firewall, you’ll find that you can’t perform the test.

If that’s the case, there’s an alternative: Ensure you’re connected to the internet outside of your organization’s network, like 4G or 5G. This applies to both the laptop and the smartphone as a player. If it works then, you know you have a viable alternative.

While it’s rare to provide guarantees for digital products, I have complete confidence in my InfoSec PubQuiz Pack. However, to assure you, if you’re not satisfied, I offer a no-questions-asked 90-day money-back policy. 

After that period, I’m sure we can work things out together. It’s important to me to build a valuable relationship and help you confidently boost your team’s engagement. The safer we all are with our data, the better it is for all of us in the long run.