An App to Keep the Population Secure Online

The Challenge?

The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) approached 3 Sided Cube because they wanted an app that gives users a more immersive experience in learning about and reporting upon online threats. In recent years, there has been an increase in malicious online approaches by organized criminals and nation-states who are trying to target individuals in the UK. Several news outlets have reported on the threat from espionage in particular and so NPSA wanted to develop an app that had practical advice, guidance and tools.

NPSA wanted a way in which to train their teams in various government departments and key sectors to recognise and avoid falling victim to these threats. The focus is very social media heavy and they wanted to provide tools to offer a learning experience that will make users more aware of the threats on various platforms and how to avoid them. 

Along with the learnings, they also wanted users to have the ability to put their learning to use with the profile reviewer and when required have the ability to easily report suspicious profiles so that NPSA could investigate and take action to review and put a stop to that particular malicious account.

The Solution

We delivered a Native iOS and Android app that offers a learning module feature where users can earn trophies upon the completion of each module course completed. Another feature the app offers is the ability to report profiles for NPSA to further investigate.

A challenge we enjoyed really sinking our teeth into was building the app completely serverless whilst also providing the ability to customise and tailor the content for NPSA’s various audiences. This means “Think Before You Link” has no Content Management System (CMS) and is a completely self-contained build. For security reasons within the organisation this was the ideal outcome.

Results

The app was launched to a pilot group consisting of UK government departments and a few key organisations in the UK Defence and Transport sectors. So far, we have had excellent feedback that the advice and guidance is really clear to understand and pitched correctly. 

We have also had over 40 reports of potentially malicious profiles, which is helping keep our communities safe and secure.