A North East business and technology consultancy is helping firms learn to avoid an ‘Udder Disaster’ with the creation of its own online and physical board game.
Information security and business resilience experts Sarah Cunningham, and Craig Archdeacon from Waterstons Ltd, which is headquartered in Durham and has offices in London and Glasgow, plus Sydney, Australia, developed the farmyard-themed game to help replicate real life events in a fun and interactive way.
Archdeacon, head of cyber assurance at Waterstons said: “It can be difficult to articulate the importance of balancing business objectives with good risk management, cyber security and a well-thought-out strategy, so we created this game to close the gap between innovation, growth and the reality of building a business. [By] making it fun and engaging players don’t even realise they are gaining a greater understanding of why protections are in place to enable effective operation, opportunity creation and taking well-informed, calculated risks.”
In the game, which takes common business scenarios and applies them to the context of a dairy farm, players need to successfully navigate the challenges of running a business, considering key components and strategies to protect, adapt, optimise and innovate.
Archdeacon added continued: “One of the biggest cyber security weaknesses for businesses is lack of knowledge amongst staff, so Udder Disaster can be used as a training tool for teams, business leaders, operational managers and budding entrepreneurs to understand vulnerabilities, risks and budgets outside of the context of their own business.”
Initially developed online during the first Covid-19 lockdown, the game is now available to play both virtually and in-person, meaning it can be accessed by firms all over the world.
