Innovating Cybersecurity Training: Mintra Develops Bespoke eLearning for Yokogawa

Yokogawa is a global leader in advanced measurement, control, and information solutions across the energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food industries. They address customer issues regarding optimising production, assets, and supply chains through digital technologies, assisting them in moving towards environmental awareness and autonomous operations. Founded in Tokyo in 1915, Yokogawa operates globally with over 17,000 employees across 129 companies in 60 countries.

Mintra’s relationship with Yokogawa began in 2012 with Atlas Knowledge (acquired by Mintra in 2018) and provided eLearning courses for Yokogawa’s global university until 2020. This eight-year contract involved both the Singapore and Japan headquarters. The bespoke course development project originated from Yokogawa's European division, referred to Mintra by their Asian counterparts.

The Challenge - Cyber threats are on the rise

Cyberattacks have more than doubled globally since the Coronavirus pandemic and the risk of businesses experiencing extreme losses is increasing. These losses have more than quadrupled since 2017 to $2.5 billion and indirect losses such as reputational damage can be even more damaging long term.

In this shifting cyber landscape, Yokogawa’s clients face a growing need to increase the security of their Operational Technology (OT) environments.

With more danger of cyber threats to production facilities, processing plants, critical infrastructure, and stringent cybersecurity assessments by authorities, Yokogawa required an effective and scalable training solution.

The existing face-to-face training for OT security awareness limited the company's ability to distribute consistent, trackable training across multiple global locations. The challenge was to transition from classroom training to a more interactive digital format with inbuilt exams and automated certificates. It was important that it could be delivered anytime, anywhere, while maintaining the effectiveness and engagement of in-person sessions.

The Solution

Mintra was tasked with creating an eLearning course for Operators and Engineers accessing Industrial Automation and Control System (IACS) environments. The course was to equip these professionals with an awareness of how to protect production environments from security risks.

Mintra's Content Development team, including Project Manager and Instructional Designers, Quality Assurance Coordinators, and Digital Learning Designers, collaborated closely with Yokogawa's cybersecurity experts, Mark Hellinghuizer Plant Network Security Consultant and Dragos-Alexandru Dinculeana, Cybersecurity Technical Expert.

Mark Hellinghuizer commented, “The plan was to create training which got the wheels in motion and helped our customers with the next steps.”

The project started with Yokogawa providing Mintra with their existing training materials and undertaking a full review and scoping of the critical information from their existing face-to-face training, providing a baseline to work from.

Mintra's Instructional Designers developed this material into an eLearning script, detailing the course learning objectives and assessment, incorporating activities to keep learners engaged and ensure knowledge retention.

The course design emphasised storytelling, beginning with real-world examples of significant cyberattacks, such as those targeting process industries, to illustrate the potential consequences of security breaches. The new digital format captured elements of the classroom approach by carefully selecting and presenting the most relevant and insightful aspects of these stories.

Steve Mann, Senior Digital Learning Designer at Mintra. “One of the challenges for this project was producing all the visuals to represent the various scenarios, for example, a process industry cyber-attack where no images or video content were available without infringing copyright/licencing. This was overcome by creating new graphics to re-enact what was shown in the source video with the detailed guidance of the course script to represent a real-life situation accurately.”

Throughout development, Mintra’s Content Team worked closely with Yokogawa's cybersecurity experts to ensure that the presentation of the complex subject matter was accurate and relatable to the end user.

The Results

An international project spanning eight months has provided a flexible, scalable learning solution that can be accessed by customers worldwide, ensuring consistent training quality regardless of location.

The Yokogawa course is hosted on Mintra’s Trainingportal, (Mintra’s Learning and Competency Management System).

The collaboration between Mintra and Yokogawa was smooth, with the project phase managed fully remotely and communication handled efficiently through email and Teams meetings. The dedication and investment of Mintra's team and Yokogawa's experts, Mark and Dragos, was instrumental in delivering a product of high quality, on time and in budget.

Lesley Bloice, Instructional Design Manager from Mintra shared, “It was an enjoyable project to work on. An engaged customer with deep subject matter expertise makes both the process and the outcome more effective. Yokogawa were fully engaged in creating the best learning experience possible and we worked closely to match our expertise with their vision.”

Going forward, Yokogawa intends to update the training annually and, depending on the uptake, there is potential to make group-specific versions for managers and operators. Mintra remains ready to assist with updates as required, ensuring that Yokogawa's OT security training stays ahead of the curve.

Yokogawa's partnership with Mintra has enabled a successful digital transformation of their OT security training, providing a sustainable, efficient, and effective solution for enhancing cybersecurity awareness for their customers worldwide.

Mark Hellinghuizer from Yokogawa said, “We choose to work with Mintra because they truly understand digital learning. They grasp client requirements, learning profiles, styles, retention, and the evolving dynamics of education. Mintra integrates this knowledge with their technology platforms to create a unique and effective learning experience.”

“As a customer, I feel I was taken seriously, and my comments were treated professionally. The Mintra team were always receptive and incorporated my own storylines into the design.

“The quality of the final product was very good and helping our customers with their awareness of Operational Technology Security will ultimately have a positive impact on Yokogawa as a business.”