Specialization - 3 course series
This Specialization is designed for post-graduate students aiming to master AI applications in cybersecurity. Through three comprehensive courses, you will explore advanced techniques for detecting and mitigating various cyber threats. The curriculum covers essential topics such as AI-driven fraud prevention, malware analysis, and the implications of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). You will gain hands-on experience in identifying anomalies in network traffic, implementing reinforcement learning techniques for adaptive security measures, and evaluating AI model performance against real-world challenges. By completing this Specialization, you will develop a deep understanding of how to secure AI systems while addressing the complexities of adversarial attacks. This knowledge will prepare you to tackle emerging cybersecurity challenges, making you a valuable asset in the rapidly evolving field of digital security. With a focus on practical applications and industry-relevant skills, you will be well-equipped for a career in AI-driven cybersecurity.
Applied Learning Project
In the "AI for Cybersecurity" specialization, learners will apply AI techniques to develop practical cybersecurity tools. They will create both machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models to detect IoT botnet activity in network traffic, emphasizing feature engineering for ML and optimizing raw data for DL. Additionally, participants will design a metamorphic malware detector using a Hidden Markov Model, analyzing opcode sequences to classify them as malware or legitimate software. Throughout these projects, learners will export models, test them on unseen data, and submit video demonstrations along with their code. This hands-on approach equips learners with skills in AI-driven threat detection and model implementation for real-world cybersecurity challenges.
This is a Coursera course, available through SADA. This course is delivered on Coursera and you complete it there. When you open it, it launches directly into Coursera in a new tab, already signed in for you — no separate account or login needed. It is fully connected and integrated with the SADA platform, and made available to you through SADA's partnership with Coursera. Your learning and completion happen on Coursera.
There are 3 modules in this course
This IBM course will teach you the critical skills needed to manage and investigate cybersecurity incidents. You will learn about key topics, including incident response frameworks (NIST and SANS), digital forensics methodologies, and best practices for handling digital evidence. Through hands-on labs and projects, you’ll gain practical experience in detecting, analyzing, and mitigating cybersecurity threats, as well as conducting forensic investigations using industry-standard tools.
By the end of the course, you will be equipped to implement incident response plans, collect and analyze digital evidence, and report findings to support cybersecurity efforts. This course is ideal for learners looking to strengthen their expertise in digital forensics and incident response, making it an essential component for those aiming to advance in the cybersecurity field.
Este é um curso da Coursera, disponibilizado através da SADA. Este curso é ministrado na Coursera e é lá que o conclui. Ao abri-lo, é aberto na Coursera num novo separador, já com a sua sessão iniciada, sem necessidade de conta ou início de sessão separados. Está totalmente ligado e integrado com a plataforma SADA, e é disponibilizado através da parceria da SADA com a Coursera. A sua aprendizagem e conclusão decorrem na Coursera.
There are 2 modules in this course
Build the strategic side of cybersecurity — the one that dictates how organizations remain secure, compliant, and resilient. Cybersecurity Governance and Compliance explains the frameworks that give direction to security decisions, the policies that influence behavior, and the risk practices that keep operations up and running.
You’ll learn how to build governance structures, manage security policies, and evaluate risk through identification, analysis, tolerance, appetite, and treatment. BIA and vendor risk management help you understand business-critical dependencies and third-party exposure. You then move into the practical world of compliance: running vendor assessments, using compliance tools, managing privacy and data protection requirements, and strengthening awareness through penetration testing fundamentals, reconnaissance insights, and phishing reporting. If you want to influence security at a strategic level, this course becomes your roadmap. Enroll and advance into a governance-driven cybersecurity role.
This is a Coursera course, available through SADA. This course is delivered on Coursera and you complete it there. When you open it, it launches directly into Coursera in a new tab, already signed in for you — no separate account or login needed. It is fully connected and integrated with the SADA platform, and made available to you through SADA's partnership with Coursera. Your learning and completion happen on Coursera.
Specialization - 3 course series
Vigilance against cyberthreats and attacks becomes increasingly important year over year as we continue to accelerate the amount of sensitive information in digital, web-accessible formats. Do you want to arm yourself with the required knowledge to ensure protection for yourself or your organization? Take this cybersecurity Specialization to learn the basics!
This cybersecurity fundamentals program from IBM can help every individual with limited or no experience in IT or cybersecurity, whether you are a developer, a manager, an IT professional, or a digital consumer interested in learning about issues in the field and the measures you can take to ensure organizational security.
This specialization will equip learners with an understanding of the fundamental concepts, processes, tools, and strategies of cybersecurity, in combination with hands-on exercises and activities, to gain the experience necessary to implement security best practices and take informed decisions in case of a cyberattack.
Investigate topics like authorization, authentication, encryption, firewalls, detection, safety practices, and safe-guarding applications, data, and networks. Explore cybersecurity-related roles and career paths. Get started with your cybersecurity learning today!
Applied Learning Project
This Specialization emphasizes applied learning and includes a series of hands-on activities and projects. In these exercises, you’ll take the theory and skills you’ve gained and practice them with real-world scenarios.
You will explore networking ports and protocols and perform network troubleshooting. You will install Windows updates, anti-virus software, and use Windows Defender firewall. Additionally, manage browser privacy settings and configure a secure network. Regarding cybersecurity-related careers, you will search for job postings with the required skills and qualifications for specific roles and even start to develop your own resume and portfolio.
This is a Coursera course, available through SADA. This course is delivered on Coursera and you complete it there. When you open it, it launches directly into Coursera in a new tab, already signed in for you — no separate account or login needed. It is fully connected and integrated with the SADA platform, and made available to you through SADA's partnership with Coursera. Your learning and completion happen on Coursera.
ECOWAS, in collaboration with Smart Africa through the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) WARDIP, is organising a regional capacity-building initiative dedicated to women in cybersecurity, targeting female members of the ECOWAS Information Sharing and Analysis Centre and national CSIRTs. This programme will combine knowledge-sharing, technical training, and experiential learning through a study tour.
Women remain underrepresented in cybersecurity technical and leadership roles, despite being a vital talent pool for strengthening national and regional cyber resilience. Providing access to specialised training, mentorship, networking and exposure to good practices is critical to building a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Programme Dates
- Preparatory Webinar: 11-12 August 2026 (online, 2 hours/day)
- In-Person Training and Study Tour: 17-21 August 2026, Vilnius, Lithuania
Target Participants: Female members of ECOWAS national CSIRTs and the ECOWAS Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (ISAC)
Organised by: ECOWAS, in partnership with Smart Africa/SADA WARDIP and the World Bank
Your country may feel sovereign. But is it? Most governments rely on foreign-owned infrastructure for their most critical systems - communications, citizen data, national security. The question isn't whether your country has a digital strategy. It's whether you actually control what runs underneath it.
This opening webinar launches a practitioner programme for cyber authorities, regulators, and senior public sector executives who need to move from understanding digital sovereignty to actually implementing it.
What you will gain:
- A clear picture of where your country actually stands - not where its strategy says it stands
- Identification of your most critical hidden dependencies: infrastructure, jurisdiction, encryption keys
- Understanding of the two threats hitting governments simultaneously: vendor lock-in and the quantum decryption horizon
- A sovereignty gap map and a clear sense of where to act first
Who is this for? Policymakers, regulators, national cybersecurity authorities, and senior public sector executives seeking a clear, actionable path from digital sovereignty principles to operational control.
Delivered by: RealTyme, in partnership with the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA)
Digital sovereignty is not an IT project. It is the new standard of national autonomy in the digital age.
Welcome to your course on Cybersecurity Economics for Emerging Markets!
This course is designed for government officials, policymakers, and digital-economy leaders across Africa who need to make the case for cybersecurity in budget rooms, not just server rooms. Most cybersecurity efforts fail not because the technology was weak, but because the spending was never framed as an economic decision: too much on rare, exotic threats, too little on the cheap fundamentals, and no way to show what a breach actually costs. An economic lens flips that around. It treats security as an investment with measurable returns, exposes why markets systematically underprovide it, and equips you to design proportionate policy that fits real emerging-market resource constraints.
The curriculum introduces why digital infrastructure creates economic exposure through core concepts including externalities and public goods, then maps how cyber threats are distributed across income groups and why upper-middle-income countries face disproportionate targeting. You will learn to quantify what incidents truly cost using the iceberg model of direct and hidden losses, diagnose the four market failures that suppress private security investment, and evaluate national responses through the five-step policy cycle, drawing on real cases including the Costa Rica 2022 ransomware incident.
By mastering these concepts, you will be equipped to quantify cyber risk in economic terms, identify the market failures that hold back investment, and design proportionate, evidence-based cybersecurity policy suited to your own national context.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Explain how digital infrastructure creates economic vulnerability, using concepts including externalities and public goods.
- Describe the regional distribution of cyber threats and why upper-middle-income countries face disproportionate exposure.
- Quantify the direct and indirect costs of cyber incidents using the iceberg model.
- Identify the four market failures that suppress private cybersecurity investment.
- Evaluate national cybersecurity policy proposals using the five-step policy cycle and economic reasoning from real-world cases.
Who is this course for?
This course is designed for government officials, policymakers, and digital-economy leaders across Africa. It is highly beneficial for individuals who are:
- Responsible for cybersecurity strategy, ICT regulation, or national budget decisions affecting digital infrastructure.
- Building the economic case for security investment or assessing the cost of cyber risk in their sector.
- Development finance professionals and advisers working on digital-economy resilience in emerging markets.
Bem-vindo(a) ao seu curso sobre Gestão da Fraude Online na Era Digital!
O cibercrime custou à economia global mais de 8 biliões USD em 2023, e África não é excepção: a fraude em dinheiro móvel, campanhas de phishing e ataques de ransomware estão a aumentar rapidamente à medida que a adopção digital se acelera no continente. Este curso dota os decisores políticos, reguladores e líderes do sector público com os conhecimentos práticos para detectar, prevenir e responder à fraude online nos seus próprios contextos.
Ao longo de quatro módulos focados, irá explorar o panorama da fraude online - as suas técnicas, consequências e sinais de aviso - e depois avançar para as práticas de cibersegurança e protecção de dados, a avaliação e gestão estruturada de riscos, e as tecnologias de detecção, estratégias de educação e quadros legais que completam uma resposta abrangente à fraude.
Resultados de Aprendizagem
Ao final deste curso, você será capaz de:
- Identificar as principais categorias de fraude online, tácticas de engenharia social e ameaças de malware relevantes para o contexto digital africano.
- Aplicar as melhores práticas de cibersegurança - palavras-passe fortes, autenticação multifactor, encriptação e comunicação segura - para reduzir a exposição à fraude.
- Analisar e implementar um processo de avaliação e gestão do risco de fraude em cinco etapas numa instituição pública ou organização financeira.
- Avaliar as tecnologias de detecção, as estratégias de educação e sensibilização, e os quadros jurídicos e regulatórios necessários para uma resposta nacional eficaz à fraude.
Para quem é este curso?
Este curso é destinado a funcionários governamentais, reguladores, pessoal TIC de ministérios, supervisores do sector financeiro e gestores do sector público em toda a África. É especialmente relevante para indivíduos que estão:
- Responsáveis pela política de cibersegurança, protecção do consumidor ou supervisão de serviços financeiros digitais.
- A desenvolver quadros nacionais ou institucionais de prevenção da fraude e protocolos de resposta.
- A procurar alinhar as práticas de gestão da fraude com instrumentos continentais como a Convenção de Malabo e a legislação nacional de protecção de dados.
Bem-vindo ao seu curso sobre a Cibersegurança Continental: Implementação, Gestão e Desenvolvimento de Capacidades!
Este curso aprofunda a forma de pôr a cibersegurança em prática por toda a África, passando da política e dos princípios para a implementação, a gestão do dia a dia e a capacidade de que um país precisa para a sustentar. É essencial para decisores políticos e profissionais africanos responsáveis por operacionalizar a cibersegurança num contexto de rápida digitalização e de ameaças crescentes.
O currículo começa com o modelo de rede Zero Trust (nunca confiar, verificar sempre; assumir a violação; acesso de menor privilégio) e como o alcançar através de práticas de firewall, VPN, IDPS, criptografia e redes na nuvem. Em seguida, aprenderá a gerir incidentes e catástrofes usando CERTs, CSIRTs e SOCs, planeamento de contingência, resposta e recuperação de incidentes, e continuidade de negócio e gestão de crise. O curso aborda depois a proteção da Infraestrutura de Informação Crítica (CII), e encerra com o desenvolvimento de capacidades em cibersegurança e a proteção das crianças online.
Ao dominar estes conceitos, estará apto(a) a implementar, gerir e sustentar um programa de cibersegurança resiliente adaptado ao seu próprio contexto nacional.
Resultados de Aprendizagem
Após a conclusão bem-sucedida deste curso, você será capaz de:
- Aplicar os princípios da rede Zero Trust, nunca confiar e verificar sempre, assumir a violação, e o acesso de menor privilégio, para reforçar a postura de segurança de uma organização.
- Conceber planos de resposta a incidentes, contingência, recuperação de desastres e continuidade de negócio adequados ao seu contexto nacional.
- Avaliar estratégias para identificar, classificar, proteger e gerir a Infraestrutura de Informação Crítica (CII).
- Recomendar políticas de desenvolvimento de capacidades em cibersegurança, incluindo a formação da força de trabalho e a inclusão de género, e de proteção das crianças online.
Para quem é este curso?
Este curso destina-se especificamente a decisores políticos, funcionários públicos, reguladores e profissionais de cibersegurança em todas as nações africanas. É altamente benéfico para indivíduos que são:
- Responsáveis pela implementação ou gestão da estratégia, das operações ou da legislação nacionais de cibersegurança.
- Lideram ou aconselham sobre resposta a incidentes, proteção de Infraestrutura de Informação Crítica ou programas de desenvolvimento de capacidades.
- Procuram alinhar os quadros nacionais com instrumentos continentais como a Convenção de Malabo e a Estratégia de Cibersegurança da UA.
Sobre o programa
O SmartGirlLead capacita a próxima geração de jovens mulheres empreendedoras africanas, com idades entre 21 e 28 anos, com competências digitais e empresariais avançadas. Através de bolsas, as participantes selecionadas realizarão um programa intensivo de 3 meses e receberão formação especializada e certificação em Inteligência Artificial, Cibersegurança, Computação em Nuvem e Análise de Dados. O programa foi concebido para melhorar a empregabilidade, dotando as jovens mulheres de competências relevantes para a indústria e alinhadas com as exigências da economia digital em evolução.
Critérios de elegibilidade
- Jovem mulher africana com idade entre 21 e 28 anos
- Interesse em Cibersegurança, Computação em Nuvem AWS, IA ou Análise de Dados
- Residente em um dos países elegíveis: Chade, Congo, Gabão, Gâmbia, Serra Leoa, Nigéria, Malawi ou África do Sul
Processo de pré-matrícula
- Preencha o formulário de candidatura
- Envie o seu CV
- Envie uma carta de motivação
- Submeta a sua candidatura
As candidaturas serão analisadas e apenas as candidatas selecionadas serão notificadas.