UWashingtonX: Building a Cybersecurity Toolkit

Technologies are always being defeated.

If you own an information asset that’s valuable enough to the right adversary, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a breach. Today’s technologies attempt to keep adversaries out, but the sad fact is they will inevitably be defeated. This means a successful cybersecurity professional needs to have an expanded arsenal in their toolkit that extends far beyond technical proficiency.

Cybersecurity professionals need to be agile, multifunctional, flexible, and dynamic given how quickly things can change. They need to be able to adapt to change and problem solve quickly, have diverse knowledge to perform many activities, respond to new threats and shift priorities to meet the challenge of the day.

The purpose of this course is to give learners insight into these type of characteristics and skills needed for cybersecurity jobs and to provide a realistic outlook on what they really need to add to their “toolkits” – a set of skills that is constantly evolving, not all technical, but fundamentally rooted in problem-solving.

Students will learn from thought leaders from both the academic and practitioner communities.