Cyber Leadership Institute, an enterprise that has equipped chief information security officers (CISOs) from dozens of countries with practical strategy design, influencing, board communication, stakeholder management, governance, and leadership skills, recently partnered with the Top 50 Women in Cyber Africa to award scholarships to four incredible cyber women leaders in the continent.
The quality of scholarship applications underscores the depth of skills in Africa. From the top 50 roster of highly accomplished corporate CISOs, virtual CISO entrepreneurs, lawyers, and doctoral graduates, the Cyber Leadership Institute has proudly chosen and once again congratulates Favour Femi-Oyewole, Access Bank Group CISO; Funzani Madi, Johannesburg Stock Exchange CISO; Olawumi Babalola, Standard Chartered Bank (Nigeria) Country CISO; and Thelma Kganakga, MTN South Africa CISO.
These four tremendous leaders and finalists in the Top 50 Women in Cyber Africa received from the Institute scholarships worth AUD$ 2,875 each—a total of AUD$ 11,500. Favour, Funzani, and Olawumi have joined the Institute's global class of CISOs and cyber leaders in the intensive, eight-week online Cyber Leadership Program last August. Thelma is set to join in October.
Tough competition
The online program is led by Cyber Leadership Institute's executives who themselves are accomplished and seasoned cybersecurity leaders: Phil Zongo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and author of the Amazon bestselling The Five Anchors of Cyber Resilience; Darren Argyle, Chairman and 2018 Top 100 Global IT Security Influencers; and Jan Schreuder, Chief Operations Officer and veteran board cybersecurity strategy advisor.
An additional scholarship to the award-winning INSEAD's Leadership Communication with Impact worth approximately AUD$ 2,500 is also up for any class participant who will win the Institute's rigorous cyber strategy competition.
The Cyber Leadership Institute has previously teamed up with the women leaders of Australian Women in Security Network and is delighted to extend its success to Africa.
From the untamed analog frontiers to the cyber age
As we celebrate African women's talent in the field of cybersecurity, we remember that enlisting their full potential will drive a safer and prosperous future in each generation. The present stands on the extraordinary grit and devotion of the African women.
In August, Cyber Leadership Institute CEO Phil Zongo was honored to deliver a keynote message to dozens of Top 50 Women in Cyber Africa delegates. Through detailed case studies, he stressed that placing an exaggerated faith in technology and fancy tools, chasing every bleeding-edge technology while at the same time crown jewels remain invisible, exposing critical applications to the internet, barely engaging in cyber resilience, failing to update with critical patches, and storing volumes of sensitive client data in plain texts are popular but terrible mistakes a wise CISO never forgets to avoid.
As the lecture concluded, Phil underscored the Cyber Leadership Institute’s passion with the incredibly talented group of cybersecurity leaders that cyber-resilient enterprises put people's hearts and minds, not technology, at the center of their strategies. Such an enterprise creates deeply entrenched beliefs that protecting the organization from cyber threats is the responsibility of both board of directors and frontline personnel. Board oversight and C-suite leadership have remained indispensable in any organizational transformation, and the cybersecurity industry is no exception.