NMIT launches postgrad diploma to boost NZ's cybersecurity skills
The Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) is the latest institution to deliver cybersecurity training to IT staff, with the launch of its new postgraduate diploma programme.
The NMIT Post-Graduate Diploma in IT Security Management is being offered in the institute's Auckland campus to domestic and international students.
The programme bridges the gap for undergraduates looking for a pathway into IT, or those already working in IT who want to move into managerial roles.
The course couldn't be more timely, with one recent survey by PwC showing that only half of large corporates have security standards for suppliers or qualified anti-hacking staff.
On top of that, the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre estimates that attacks on New Zealand computers have doubled in the last five years.
The global cost of cybercrime is around $600 billion per year and one in five New Zealanders have been affected by cybercrime in the last two years.
Virginia Watson, NMIT's director of marketing and international development, says this statistic shows a major opportunity for employment education.
She says that increasing corporate concerns about security spurred the course's development.
The Auckland base also features a 'hack lab', where students can implement and test the latest IT security techniques. It will be part of the postgraduate course.
Mary-Claire Proctor, NMIT's head of department of Arts, Media and Digital Technology, says the programme will not only teach cybersecurity and address a market gap, but will also teach leadership skills as well as people and policy management.
"As with all our programmes, this one is practically-based so that graduates can hit the ground running while part-time students who are working can be applying lessons as they go.
Courses in the programme include ethical hacking, IT security governance, IT security law, IT asset auditing, vulnerability assessment and risk analysis and much more.
