Course will aim to equip business leaders and future business leaders with the necessary skills and leadership confidence on cyber-resilience.
A cyber resilience elective has been launched by the University of Oxford.
Part of the MBA programme at the university’s Saïd Business School, the course addresses the growing threat of increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, and the need for business leaders to be involved in strengthening the cyber-resilience of their organisations.
The elective builds on research by Professor Michael Smets and Dr Manuel Hepfer at Oxford Saïd whose work found that business leaders lack knowledge of cyber, and are uncomfortable making decisions on cybersecurity, especially when their organisations are under attack.
As a result, this course will aim to equip business leaders and future business leaders with the necessary skills and leadership confidence on cyber-resilience.
A unique feature of the course is a collaboration with Sygnia, who will deliver an interactive live simulation of a cyber-attack, providing students with hands-on experience of the complexities, uncertainties, and pressures of managing a cyber-attack.
Chris Crummey, global director of executive and board cyber services at Sygnia, said: ‘As nation-state actors and cyber-criminals intensify efforts to disrupt critical infrastructure, paralyse operations, and steal sensitive data, this MBA programme at Saïd Business School represents a bold and necessary step toward strengthening global cyber defence.
“What sets it apart is the immersive, high-pressure simulation that brings the chaos of a real cyber-attack to life—challenging students to lead with intention and decisiveness when it matters most.”
Tomer Amir, a former MBA student now working for Google Cloud, is joining the course as a guest speaker. He said: “This is exactly the kind of course I wish had existed when I was a student. Building cyber-resilience skills early in your career is imperative given the shifting threat landscape we are seeing. Understanding cyber is key for any future leader. So, I am very excited to support this course.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
