Cybersecurity: Overlooked Threats to Your Strategy

Cybersecurity: Overlooked Threats to Your Strategy tackles what truly keeps cybersecurity professionals up at night: the human forces driving unconventional and asymmetric cyber attacks designed to defeat your defenses. Applying a better understanding of their drivers bolsters your cybersecurity. Beyond what is taught by most cybersecurity programs, this course shifts the focus from systems to your adversaries—examining the psychological motivations, strategic objectives, and decision-making processes of non-state cyber actors determined to outmaneuver your defenses, so you can learn how to guard against them. Led by Dr. Steve Sin, Director of the Unconventional and Asymmetric Threats Division at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), learners gain the rare, adversary-centered overview missing from most cybersecurity curricula. Strengthen your strategy by understanding the human forces shaping today’s cyber threats. No technical background is required; just curiosity and a desire to understand one of today’s most pressing security challenges

• How cyber actors operate
• The tools and techniques cyber actors use
• The strategic goals of cyber actors

• No deep prior experience is required, but basic computer and internet skills are helpful
• Ability to read course instructions in English and complete short practice activities