More than 6 500 students from around the world are expected to begin a free cyber security course with Charles Sturt University (CSU) today.

 

The course is designed to prepare students for the IT industry’s most popular qualification, the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) Security Certification, and is comparable to other online courses costing up to $3 800.

 

The course is offered by IT Masters and CSU over six weeks from Wednesday 17 July and includes lectures delivered via weekly 90-minute live webinars.

 

IT Masters CEO Mr Martin Hale said the response had been extraordinary.

 

“Cyber security is obviously a very hot topic right now, and people working in the industry see qualifications in that area as an important plank of their career,” he said.

 

“We have had such a strong response we have closed off the course at 4 000 enrolments and will run another series of webinars two hours after the first for the remaining students.”

 

Mr Hale said the course contained elements of CSU’s Professional Systems Security subject and students who successfully completed the free course would gain a credit towards the Master of Information Systems Security.

 

“The course will culminate in a CISSP certification practice exam, a timed open-book exam that students take at their own computer,” he said.

 

“Some students would be ready to take the CISSP Certification exam at the end of our free course, but most would need to do further study. The CISSP certification exam is one of the toughest in the industry, which why it is so highly regarded by employers. The exam has 250 questions to be completed over six hours and students need to get at least 70 per cent to pass, so they really need to make sure they are prepared.

 

“This course is a way for security professionals to get a good grounding in the concepts covered in the CISSP exam, or for network administrators to get an understanding of the pragmatic applications of the CISSP 10 domains of knowledge.”

 

Enrolments for the course have come from around Australia and from Spain, India, Venezuela, Columbia, Mexico, the USA, England, Singapore, Tibet, Canada, Poland, Ireland, New Zealand, Italy, Argentina, Egypt and the Philippines.

 

The webinars will be presented by Dr Craig Wright, a cyber security industry veteran with 23 years’ experience who has appeared on numerous occasions as a digital forensics expert witness in cyber security law suites and has authored more than 100 publications on cyber security.