Cisco Threat Busters

Objective

Cisco sought to make cybersecurity education accessible and engaging by transforming threat research into interactive entertainment. The company aimed to demonstrate its Umbrella security platform's capabilities to enterprise customers and broader audiences through a game that reveals real threats and protective mechanisms.

Solution

Threat Busters is a retro-styled underground adventure game where players explore environments, discover secret meeting rooms, and navigate to the Bureau of Cyber Intelligence headquarters to gather malware intelligence. The experience educates on actual cybersecurity threats—cryptomining, ransomware, phishing, XBash, DanaBot, Roaming Mantis—with explanations of how Cisco's threat research detects each threat. Features include hidden easter eggs, a competitive leaderboard, threat trend graphs filtered by company size and industry, and monthly content updates tied to emerging threats.

Results

No quantified engagement metrics (player numbers, playtime, conversions) were published. The project received an Awwwards Honorable Mention (March 2019) with community voting scores of 7.0–9.5 across design, usability, creativity, and content.