Cybersecurity Leadership for Non-Technical Executives
Dates:
This course will be offered live online, "in real time", via Zoom. Please view the "Live Online" tab for additional information.
Cyber risk and cybersecurity are a source of frustration for executives and government officials who spend inordinate time and worry trying to protect their data from sophisticated phishing schemes, ransomware, and state-sponsored hacking. However, cybersecurity issues are not purely a technology problem—they are multi-headed hydras that need to be addressed with a multi-disciplinary approach.
This cybersecurity course is not intended to provide guidance on IT infrastructure or troubleshooting, rather it focuses on the humanistic and managerial aspects of cybersecurity. As a participant in this course, you will be provided with a framework of managerial protocols to follow, resulting in a personalized playbook with actionable next steps towards creating a more cyber-aware culture within your organization.
Program Details
Takeaways
Live Online
Sample Schedule
Participants
Faculty
The MIT Edge
Reviews
Cybersecurity Leadership for Non-Technical Executives Certificate Track: Management and Leadership Location:
Live Online Tuition:
$4,100 Program Days (for ACE Credit) 2
On the surface, a ransomware attack that effectively locks up your organization’s data is a technical one: Can the data be unlocked, and how fast? But embedded within cyber risk and cybersecurity are a host of management problems as well, including decisions about whether to pay the ransom, how your organization should operate if its data remains locked, how to talk to the media, and whether new policies are required to respond to similar issues in the future.
In today’s landscape of escalating cybercrime, mitigating cyber risk is not the Chief Information Security Officer’s responsibility alone—it is everyone’s job. Getting ahead of hackers and other security risks requires the active engagement of non-technical management, as well as an overall commitment to building a cybersecurity culture within your enterprise.
Cybersecurity Leadership for Non-Technical Executives provides leaders and managers with frameworks and best practices for managing cybersecurity-related risk separate from the specialized IT infrastructure typically associated with this topic. Course content includes lectures, highly interactive discussions, and case studies related to:
Overall cybersecurity awareness
The role of non-tech leaders in cybersecurity management
Actionable ideas to increase cyber resilience
How to measure the organization's cyber-safety level—and how it is changing over time
How to speak the language of cybersecurity to enable informed conversations with your technology teams and colleagues, and ensure your organization is as cybersecure as possible
Key concepts from the various learning modules are cumulatively combined into a personalized action plan – a playbook – of what to do next and how to manage various stakeholders throughout your organization. This will also enable you to have more informed conversations with your CISO or other technology leaders regarding cyberthreat management.
The cybersecurity course also draws from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework for policy and management planning—a flexible and cost-effective approach to protecting critical infrastructure.
You will leave this course with:
A framework for how to keep an organization secure and mitigate cyber risk
An understanding of what cybersecurity leadership looks like—and what you can do right now
A personalized playbook with actionable next steps for improving a culture of cyber awareness within your organization
The latest research and thinking on measuring an organization’s cybersecurity readiness
Live Online - Learning When You Need It Most
This course will be presented live online using the Zoom format. Class size is limited to facilitate networking among peers and allow ample opportunities to pose questions directly to faculty.
Live presentations by faculty, shared documents, and collaborative tools
Proven frameworks and immediately applicable takeaways
Casual networking with peers in breakout groups
Ample breaks and opportunities to ask questions
To make the most of the experience, we recommend:
Establishing a strong internet connection and using a web camera.
Testing your system using https://zoom.us/test prior to the start of your program.
Connecting to Zoom via your computer (dialing in by phone only if necessary). This will ensure that you are able to view the materials and fully participate in group activities.
Keeping your webcam turned on during lessons, when participating in breakout rooms, and while working together on exercises and activities. By doing so, you’ll help make the experience more engaging for yourself, your co-learners, and the faculty team.
Attendance throughout the program is required to earn a certificate of completion. Please note that this live online course will be credited as an “in-person” program for the purpose of meeting Executive Certificate or Advanced Certificate for Executives requirements.
We look forward to seeing and hearing from you online!
Please note, schedule and faculty may be subject to change. All times noted are in Eastern U.S. (Boston, MA) time zone. Further details about the Live Online experience may be found on the “Live Online” tab.
The intended audience for this program includes general managers, executives, and VP’s looking to learn managerial skills and strategy related to cybersecurity awareness and mitigating the risk of cyber attacks. This cybersecurity course is not for technical executives and senior security leaders (CISOs).
Why is this course is designed for general managers and not for security leaders? General managers need to be knowledgeable participants in cybersecurity discussions and activities. Cybersecurity decisions made by the security teams can have direct impact on business opportunities and processes. Without an understanding of the elements of cybersecurity, a general manager risks his or her business. Decisions made about cybersecurity can impact options available to the general manager, and no one wants their business options limited because of security decisions made without them. Further, because keeping data and systems secure is in everyone’s best interest, it’s critical for general managers to know the language and the basic cybersecurity frameworks to inform their decisions.
John Norris Maguire (1960) Professor of Information Technology Professor, Information Technology and Engineering Systems
Founding Director, Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan Program
Stuart Madnick is the John Norris Maguire Professor of Information Technologies at the MIT Sloan School of Management, a Professor of Engineering Systems at the MIT School of Engineering, and the Founding Director of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan: the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.
Madnick’s involvement in cybersecurity research goes back to 1979, when he coauthored the book Computer Security. Currently, he heads the Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan Initiative, formerly called the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, aka (IC)3.
Madnick holds a PhD in computer science from MIT and has been an MIT faculty member since 1972. He served as the head of MIT's Information Technologies Group in the Sloan School of Management for more than 20 years. He is the author or coauthor of more than 300 books, articles, and reports. Besides cybersecurity, his other research interests include Big Data, semantic connectivity, database technology, software project management, and the strategic use of information technology.
Madnick has served as a consultant to major corporations and has been the cofounder of five high-tech firms. He currently operates the 14th-century Langley Castle Hotel in England.
Executive Director (IC)3 Management Science Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity
Keri Pearlson is the Executive Director of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan: The Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (IC)3 at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Pearlson has held positions in academia and industry including Babson College, The University of Texas at Austin, Gartner’s Research Board, CSC, and AT&T. She founded KP Partners, a CIO advisory services firm and the IT Leaders’ Forum, a community of next generation IT executives. She is the founding director of the Analytics Leadership Consortium at the International Institute of Analytics. Pearlson began her career at Hughes Aircraft Company as a systems analyst.
Pearlson's research spans MIS, business strategy, and organizational design. Her current research studies how organizations build a culture of cybersecurity and how organizations build trust to share mitigations for cyber breaches. She is the coauthor of Managing and Using Information: A Strategic Approach 6thed and of Zero Time: Providing Instant Customer Value. Her work has been published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, TheAcademy of Management Executive, Information Resources Management Journal, and Harvard Business Publishing.
Pearlson holds a Doctorate in business administration (DBA) in MIS from Harvard Business School, and an MS in industrial engineering and BS in mathematics from Stanford. She is the founding president of the Austin Society for Information Management (SIM) and was named “2014 National SIM Leader of the Year.”
Dr. Michael Siegel is a Principal Research Scientist at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the Director of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan (CAMS). Dr. Siegel’s research focuses on the management, strategy, technology, and organizational issues related to cybersecurity with specific interest in vulnerability markets, cyber risk metrics, dark web business models, IoT endpoint security, cybersecurity workforce development, and educating management in cybersecurity. He also has done research in the intelligent integration of information systems, risk management, insurgency and state stability, data analytics, healthcare systems, and systems modeling.
Dr. Siegel has published articles on such topics as simulation modeling for cyber resilience, cyber vulnerability markets, data management strategy, architecture for practical metadata integration, heterogeneous database systems, and managing and valuing a corporate IT portfolio using dynamic modeling of software development and maintenance processes. His research at MIT has continued for over 30 years and includes a wide range of publications, patents and teaching accomplishments.
To achieve a more holistic approach on cybersecurity, MIT Sloan faculty, including those teaching in this program, are increasingly collaborating across the Institute with the goal of getting ahead of the real-world problems that keep executives and political leaders up at night. Research topics range from the governance of the internet to global trade policies for cyber-risky internet-enabled devices to new approaches for calculating the costs and benefits of cybersecurity investments. MIT’s ability to bring world-class technology and engineering resources to address managerial problems is unparalleled, and cybersecurity is precisely the type of escalating issue that MIT exists to overcome.
All reviews are submitted by program attendees and are not edited by MIT Sloan Executive Education. Read more about our ratings and reviews.
Hosung L:
Despite covering a big subject in broad strokes in just three days, this class was valuable to me in contemplating the readiness for all my portfolio companies. Close to a live fire exercise in role play, real CISO access... the experience was rich enough that I would recommend this class to any non-technical executives who has a vague feel that this is increasingly one of the most important subject for sustainability.
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Date Attended:
Jan 12, 2021
Date Reviewed:
Jan 18, 2021
Marguerite S:
This program was extremely helpful for understanding how leadership must play an active role in expectation management and leveraging the ability to fill in the gaps between Cybersecurity and Security programs and how the collaboration is relevant to continue providing an effective security posture.
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Date Attended:
Sep 22, 2020
Date Reviewed:
Oct 1, 2020
Helen Z:
You just feel different between the before and the after course. It has been eye opening to me, very inspiring, and actually revealed like a must to be more leading edge and responsible when you do tackle enterprize-wide data transformation projects. The playbook helped me structure the relevant personal take aways which was very well done. Eventually the presenters are just brilliant, sharing with passion, and the other attendees when interacting help you complement your thoughts. Cybersecurity should be on all top executives agenda, this is for sure.
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Date Attended:
Sep 22, 2020
Date Reviewed:
Sep 25, 2020
Nancy M:
The virtual live format was a new experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very interactive and learn a lot too.
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Date Attended:
Sep 22, 2020
Date Reviewed:
Sep 25, 2020
Stefano O:
Completely changed my perspective: humans are still the key players, even in cybersecurity.
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Date Attended:
Sep 22, 2020
Date Reviewed:
Sep 25, 2020
Anthony W:
This was a great course with relevant content and though provoking scenarios. The workbook allowed us to immediately relate the knowledge learned to our own environments.
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Date Attended:
Nov 14, 2019
Date Reviewed:
Nov 19, 2019
Lawrence C:
This is a program which truly converges the world-class faculty and top executives together!
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Date Attended:
Nov 14, 2019
Date Reviewed:
Nov 19, 2019
Robert C:
As a technical professional, I took the course in part to learn how to work more efficiently and effectively with non-technical executives. The course exceeded all my expectations because of the faculty and the diversity of my fellow students.
The content of the course was robust with information and insight provided by the faculty. I was repeatedly wowed by their masterful abilities to engage the diverse audience with the course content and each other.
The course was an enthusiastic call to action about cyber security. Many frameworks, methods and insights were shared that could positively impact organizations of any size.
The faculty provided a playbook template that was rich with thought provoking questions so each individual participant could transform their in class case study learning into action plans to impact the students work environments. Thanks to the brilliant yet personable faculty, the playbook I was enabled to write was pure ROI for me and my employer. We began implementing enhanced communication and other real world cyber security solutions the first day I was back from MIT
Thank you MIT!
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Date Attended:
Jul 16, 2019
Date Reviewed:
Jul 26, 2019
Christina S:
Interesting perspectives from knowledgeable speakers.
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Date Attended:
Jul 16, 2019
Date Reviewed:
Jul 18, 2019
Guntram H:
Comprehensive introduction into the matter of cybersecurity. I benefited from the lectures as well as from the class discussions with a number of international participants. And would have liked to learn more about the technical topics behind it.
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Participant Testimonial
"Perfect course for business leaders in search of a holistic approach to understanding and addressing cybersecurity topics. Interactive class experience leveraging cases, frameworks and first-hand experience of faculty and participants alike. Fireside chat session very engaging." - Sebastien G.
Keeping Our Teams and Our Families Cybersecure
Almost everyone is working from home these days and it's created a strange, chaotic environment for each of us, our organizations and for our families. As we all learn how to communicate, share Wi-Fi, and take meetings remotely, we must also think about keeping ourselves, our teams, and our families cybersecure. In this session, Keri Pearlson discusses some of the current ways malicious actors are trying to get our money, steal company data and infiltrate our systems. We also talk about actions you can take tomorrow to both raise awareness and change behaviors of those around you to keep everyone more secure.
Fighting cybercrime requires a new kind of leadership
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What Every Manager Should Know About Cybersecurity: Popular Myths and Misunderstandings Exposed
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