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“Cybersecurity for Everyone” Success on Coursera; New Course Planned for October

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“Cybersecurity for Everyone” taught by Dr. Charles Harry, an Associate Research Professor in the Public Policy and Information Schools, and the Director of the Center for Governance of Technology and Systems (GoTech) has reached over 44,000 enrollment in its first year on the online learning platform, Coursera. With a 99% content rating, enrollees have found the course provides an accessible way to learn foundational concepts and to begin to think strategically about cybersecurity regardless of your level of technical knowledge.

Now, the second installment in the series called “A Strategic Approach to Cybersecurity” is set to launch this October. The course will explore how private and public sector leaders can develop strategic approaches to defend critical systems and integrated organizations.

”Cybersecurity is often believed to be entirely a technical discipline, yet the confluence of socio-technical elements in the field demand skills beyond computer science or engineering," argued Harry. "A Strategic Approach to Cybersecurity focuses on the larger incentives for both the private and public sector and how leaders can influence defensive strategies by assessing risk of the most consequential effects of cyber attacks.”

Both courses draw on GoTech and CISSM’s effects-centric framework for cyber risk assessment to help organizational leaders, chief information officers, and policy makers think strategically about how to allocate scarce resources based on the type of organization they’re protecting, the types of cyber threats it faces, and the consequences of different cyber events for the organization and its affiliates. The courses also leverage the CISSM Cyber Events Database, a unique open-source dataset with information on thousands of cyber events since 2014.

In 2023, the release of a third course will complete the series, focusing on assessing cyber risk and methods for measuring consequences.

“A Strategic Approach to Cybersecurity” and “Cybersecurity for Everyone” are designed to be self-paced so enrollees can start and complete on their own schedule. They have the option of purchasing the courses and receiving a certificate upon completion or auditing the courses for free.

Click here to learn more and enroll in “Cybersecurity for Everyone”. Registration details for “A Strategic Approach to Cybersecurity” coming in October 2022.


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