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Main Authors: Nusrat, Mary, Bhuiyan, Sarfuddin, Hossain, Gahangir
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26964
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author Nusrat, Mary
Bhuiyan, Sarfuddin
Hossain, Gahangir
author_facet Nusrat, Mary
Bhuiyan, Sarfuddin
Hossain, Gahangir
contents The growing sophistication of contemporary cyber threats necessitates a more effective and adaptive approach to cybersecurity training. Intuitive and adaptive approaches to learning, which are often required, are not provided in traditional learning methods. In this article, we present a new educational framework, "Learning to Explain Cybersecurity with Q20 Game", based on explainable AI (XAI), an educational game to enhance interactivity in learning. We propose a novel, game-inspired framework - the Explainable Q20 Cybersecurity Recommender (EQ-20CR), that learns to elicit the minimal set of evidential facts needed to justify cybersecurity defensive action. By casting "Why should I execute this mitigation?" as a 20 questions (Q20) game, a policy-based reinforcement-learning (RL) agent actively queries an environment until it can both (i) recommend the optimal security education and (ii) explain that decision with a concise dialogue trace. The article draws from "Playing 20 Question Game with Policy-Based Reinforcement Learning" [1] and "Learning-to-Explain: Recommendation Reason Determination through Q20 Gaming" [2]. The framework uses a policy-based reinforcement learning (RL) agent that leads the user through a sequence of questions to recognize and articulate a targeted cybersecurity concept, attack vector, or defense strategy. Furthermore, users are gradually exposed to informative questions by the system, revealing complicated, structured way at an adaptive difficulty level. In this paper, we design the architecture, its application to various concepts of cybersecurity through illustrative case studies, and its transformative potential on the training and awareness of cybersecurity recommendations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26964
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning-to-Explain through 20Q Gaming: An Explainable Recommender for Cybersecurity Education
Nusrat, Mary
Bhuiyan, Sarfuddin
Hossain, Gahangir
Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
The growing sophistication of contemporary cyber threats necessitates a more effective and adaptive approach to cybersecurity training. Intuitive and adaptive approaches to learning, which are often required, are not provided in traditional learning methods. In this article, we present a new educational framework, "Learning to Explain Cybersecurity with Q20 Game", based on explainable AI (XAI), an educational game to enhance interactivity in learning. We propose a novel, game-inspired framework - the Explainable Q20 Cybersecurity Recommender (EQ-20CR), that learns to elicit the minimal set of evidential facts needed to justify cybersecurity defensive action. By casting "Why should I execute this mitigation?" as a 20 questions (Q20) game, a policy-based reinforcement-learning (RL) agent actively queries an environment until it can both (i) recommend the optimal security education and (ii) explain that decision with a concise dialogue trace. The article draws from "Playing 20 Question Game with Policy-Based Reinforcement Learning" [1] and "Learning-to-Explain: Recommendation Reason Determination through Q20 Gaming" [2]. The framework uses a policy-based reinforcement learning (RL) agent that leads the user through a sequence of questions to recognize and articulate a targeted cybersecurity concept, attack vector, or defense strategy. Furthermore, users are gradually exposed to informative questions by the system, revealing complicated, structured way at an adaptive difficulty level. In this paper, we design the architecture, its application to various concepts of cybersecurity through illustrative case studies, and its transformative potential on the training and awareness of cybersecurity recommendations.
title Learning-to-Explain through 20Q Gaming: An Explainable Recommender for Cybersecurity Education
topic Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26964