Cyberspace is deeply interwoven with commerce and industry, government service delivery, business, health and the daily lives of citizens. Regrettably, this offers fertile ground for opportunistic cybercrimes. The financial damage caused, including instances of personal data loss, increases dramatically each year. Threats and attacks are becoming more dynamic and complex. Detecting and attributing attacks and threats to malicious actors are a major challenge to cybersecurity experts. Cyberspace therefore requires resilience to secure effectively.

This complex global problem requires rapid responses from the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and the availability of data assets controlled by the organisation. Organisations therefore need a proactive, holistic and flexible leadership approach.

The cybersecurity discipline includes technologies, policies, procedures, practices and culture designed to secure the organisation and the information it controls.

Given the real-world security challenges in South Africa and across the African continent, data protection, privacy and cybersecurity legislative frameworks are under development requiring cybersecurity governance compliance. The CISO and CIO will therefore require a higher level of knowledge of the broader cybersecurity domain. This Wits Certificate course in Cybersecurity Professional Practice and Leadership is therefore designed as an interdisciplinary course, focusing on security technologies, digital innovation, national policy, standards, law and regulation. The course incorporates elements relevant to creating a culture of cybersecurity awareness and resilience. The course also focuses on developing relevant strategic responses to the security challenges posed to the digital communications ecosystem. Specifically designed to build the foundational analytical skills for the CISO in this emerging field, this course is a must for any organisation.