Cybersecurity Advisory Services Certificate, AICPA

Cybersecurity threats are escalating, unnerving the boards of directors, managers, investors and other stakeholders of organizations of all sizes - whether public or private.

The result? Your clients are under pressure to demonstrate that they are managing threats. And that they have effective processes and controls in place to detect, respond to, mitigate and recover from cybersecurity events.

The framework for cybersecurity attestation

SOC for Cybersecurity meets a growing business need for attestation. It's a solution that builds upon the accounting profession's experience in auditing system and organization controls.

For clients whose cybersecurity risk management programs are mature, an independent CPA can perform an examination and express an expert opinion:

• Is the program accurately described?
• Are the controls effective?

Your opportunity as a cybersecurity adviser

This self-study certificate helps you understand how to perform SOC for Cybersecurity attestation examinations using the AICPA's new cybersecurity risk management reporting framework.

As a certificate recipient, you'll be among the first to showcase your knowledge about the AICPA's profession-wide approach to cybersecurity.

Digital badges: Your professional distinction

After you complete the three-part webcast series, you will be awarded a certificate in the form of a digital badge.

Proudly display it anywhere on the internet - a personal blog, a social site such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, Open Badges, a bio page on a company website or your email signature.

WHO WILL BENEFIT?

Note: You must have either IT expertise or access to IT professionals who possess the skills to perform this work.

• Public accounting practitioners interested in providing cybersecurity attestation services (SOC for Cybersecurity) and in building competencies in and understanding of this service
• Professionals who already have SOC for Service Organizations practices and are looking to expand into cybersecurity attestation services
• Management accountants and internal auditors who want to understand the SOC for Cybersecurity examination service available to their organizations related to their cybersecurity risk management program

KEY TOPICS

• Cyberthreat landscape and the terminology used to describe various aspects of cybersecurity
• Various SOC services
• Components of cybersecurity risk management program
• How to use the description criteria
• How to use the control criteria to assess an entity's controls over cybersecurity
• Key considerations prior to accepting a cybersecurity examination engagement and key planning considerations
• Key steps involved in performing the cybersecurity risk management examination
• Key factors to consider while forming the opinion and preparing the practitioner's report

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand the AICPA's Cybersecurity Risk Management reporting framework and how IT organizations and practitioners may use it to evaluate controls and communicate certain cybersecurity information to interested parties.
• Analyze the components of an organization's cybersecurity risk management program.
• Recognize the performance and reporting requirements of a SOC for Cybersecurity examination.
• Cybersecurity threats are escalating, unnerving the boards of directors, managers, investors and other stakeholders of organizations of all sizes - whether public or private.

Accredited by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), this online self-study certificate program will ensure you understand the benefits of Integrated Reporting for your organization, develop your knowledge of the IIRC's International Framework and prepare you to successfully implement Integrated Reporting.

Enhanced On-Demand Format

This product includes a course manual, plus a narrated PowerPoint video presentation delivered by Samantha Griffiths BSc (Hons), MBA, FCCA. The presentation is split into twelve separate segments relating to the chapters within the manual. This product is designed to be used by first watching the specific video segment, and then, returning to the course manual to read the relevant chapter.

WHO WILL BENEFIT?

This certificate program is valuable to anyone who needs to understand the benefits which Integrated Reporting can bring to an organization. This includes:

• Businesses planning to adopt integrated reporting that want to know where to start.
• Businesses and individuals who want to find out more about the benefits of integrated reporting and how to start the process.
• Individuals who want to advocate the adoption of integrated reporting within their organization.

KEY TOPICS

• Integrated reporting -- the vision for better corporate reporting
• Integrated thinking -- creating value over time
• Preparing the integrated report -- communicating value creation
• Implementing integrated reporting -- from financial management to value management.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Identify the business case for the introduction of Integrated Reporting, including integrated thinking, to an organization.
• Recall the fundamental concepts of value creation, the capitals, and the value creation process.
• Identify the requirements of the International Framework.
• Identify the factors which contribute to successful implementation of Integrated Reporting, including integrated thinking, within an organization.

Digital Badge: Your Professional Distinction

Set yourself apart as a future-ready financial professional. Upon completion, you will be awarded with a certificate in the form of a digital badge. Digital badges allow you to distinguish yourself in the marketplace and show your commitment to quality. The badge can be posted to your social media profiles and linked to your resume or email signature, providing maximum visibility to your achievement.

Credit Info

• CPE CREDITS: Online: 13.5 (CPE credit info)
• NASBA FIELD OF STUDY: Accounting
• LEVEL: Basic
• PREREQUISITES: None
• ADVANCE PREPARATION: None
• DELIVERY METHOD: QAS Self-Study
• COURSE ACRONYM: IRFC

Online Access Instructions

A personal pin code is enclosed in the physical packaging that may be activated online upon receipt. Once activated, you will gain immediate online access to the product for one full year.

System Requirements

AICPA's online CPE courses will operate in a variety of configurations, but only the configuration described below is supported by AICPA technicians.

This certificate is Part 2 of the Data Analyst Certificates Bundle - a comprehensive five-part program that provides training and practical guidance on the topic of data analytics.

First, you will learn the different types of variables that make up a data set and perform meaningful calculations on data to discover and explore relationships that yield insights: central tendency, variability, probability, and distribution. Then we will delve into recognizing these qualities in their different forms and how to utilize them in practical business situations. This program offers straightforward exercises to help you practice and immediately apply what you've learned. You will also get exposure to and practice with useful concepts such as quartiles, variance, and standard deviation.

Finally, you will be introduced to one of the most powerful tools available for analyzing data: the open-source "R" platform. You will be guided through an actual use case for analyzing data using R and complete your learning by seeing how the statistical concepts you've just learned can be applied in a real-world example. By completing this certificate, you will have a solid grasp of core statistical techniques underpinning an analytics practice and hands-on-practice using them.

Note: It is recommended that you complete the Data Analysis Fundamentals Certificate, or ensure you have equivalent knowledge and skills, before starting this certificate course.

Learning Labs*

This is an interactive learning program that includes bonus hands-on learning labs that will expose you to the tools needed to implement an analytics practice in a practical way and equip you to deploy those tools as needed within your organization. You will practice using various technologies for preparing, analyzing and managing datasets in the real world.

*Time spent on learning labs does not award CPE and completing learning labs is not a requirement for earning the certificate.

WHO WILL BENEFIT

• Accounting and finance professionals, especially those interested in learning and applying data analysis techniques to help their organizations make informed, data-driven business decisions.

KEY TOPICS

• The nature and types of different variables in data sets and how to use them
• Fundamental statistical concepts for working with data
• Characteristics of data that can be used for conducting analysis
• Basic calculations for analyzing and discovering useful insights from data sets
• How to understand and calculate probability from a data set
• Different types of distribution and how they can be used
• Guided exposure to the open-source R platform and its analytics capabilities
• A practical case study exploring how statistical analysis can be used in a common fraud-detection scenario
• Examples and practice exercises throughout the program to reinforce what you learn

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Determine and classify variables.
• Calculate meaningful statistics, including central tendency, measurement and variability, basic probability, conditional probability, advanced probabilities, discrete distributions, and continuous distributions.
• Analyze statistics and distributions in R case study.
• Analyze fraud-detection case study.

Digital Badge: Your Professional Distinction

*Time spent on learning labs does not award CPE and completing learning labs is not a requirement for earning the certificate.

WHO WILL BENEFIT

• Accounting and finance professionals, especially those interested in learning and applying data analysis techniques to help their organizations make informed, data-driven business decisions.

KEY TOPICS

• Defining value and tying analytics to value-driven business cases
• Understanding the characteristics of data and how they can be leveraged to gather insights from information
• Identifying project constructs for data analytics
• Identifying different types of data with which analysts will be expected to interact
• Profiling data for accurate analysis initiatives
• Understanding tool capabilities for working with data
• Cleansing data with appropriate tools to increases analytics accuracy
• Managing data quality and integrity
• Extracting, transforming, and loading data
• Implementing a data warehouse
• Managing the data life cycle
• Creating and using different types of data models
• Tools for working with both structured and unstructured data

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Identify opportunities, processes, and necessary data for solving analytical problems.
• Apply data profiling and data cleansing techniques to available data.
• Use data preparation and enrichment tools.
• Use ETL (extract, transform, load) tools.
• Compare data warehousing techniques.
• Use data warehousing and data management tools.
• Align the outcomes of your data analytics practice with your organization's strategic direction and create value.

Digital Badge: Your Professional Distinction

Set yourself apart as a future-ready financial professional. Upon completion, you will be awarded with a certificate in the form of a digital badge. Digital badges allow you to distinguish yourself in the marketplace and show your commitment to quality. The badge can be posted to your social media profiles and linked to your resume or email signature, providing maximum visibility to your achievement.

Credit Info

This certificate is Part 4 of the Data Analyst Certificates Bundle - a comprehensive five-part program that provides training and practical guidance on the topic of data analytics.

As you develop your understanding of applied predictive analytics, you'll learn how to perform basic forecasting using time-based data to predict future values from a model. You will also learn how to model and calculate scenarios based on distance and space. You will get practice with classification, including naive Bayesian classification; create basic decision trees; and use various techniques for clustering and linear optimization to solve common business problems; as well as learn techniques for assessing the effectiveness of your solutions.

Note: It is recommended that you complete the Data Analytics Modeling Certificate, or ensure you have equivalent knowledge and skills, before starting this certificate course.

Learning Labs*

This is an interactive learning program that includes bonus hands-on learning labs that will expose you to the tools needed to implement an analytics practice in a practical way and equip you to deploy those tools as needed within your organization. You will practice using various technologies for preparing, analyzing and managing datasets in the real world.

*Time spent on learning labs does not award CPE and completing learning labs is not a requirement for earning the certificate.

WHO WILL BENEFIT

• Accounting and finance professionals, especially those interested in learning and applying data analysis techniques to help their businesses make informed, data-driven business decisions.

KEY TOPICS

• Predictive analytics techniques
• Forecasting with data models
• Finding relationships in data
• Bivariate and multivariate linear regression
• KNN classification
• Clustering
• Decision trees
• Training models

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Identify the different techniques of predictive analytics: regression, classification, clustering, optimization, and simulation.
• Calculate varying types of regressions using R and Excel.
• Apply classification and clustering algorithms.
• Apply business process optimization to problems by identifying goals and constraints.
• Analyze the various probabilities of outcomes by applying Monte Carlo simulation.
• Calculate performance of predictive analytic algorithms.

Digital Badge: Your Professional Distinction

Set yourself apart as a future-ready financial professional. Upon completion, you will be awarded with a certificate in the form of a digital badge. Digital badges allow you to distinguish yourself in the marketplace and show your commitment to quality. The badge can be posted to your social media profiles and linked to your resume or email signature, providing maximum visibility to your achievement.

Credit Info

This certificate is Part 5 of the Data Analyst Certificates Bundle - a comprehensive five-part program that provides training and practical guidance on the topic of data analytics.

You will learn fundamental types of visualization techniques such as charts and graphs and explore a sampling of the most common reporting tools for producing meaningful visualizations. You will continue by developing an understanding of business intelligence (BI) -- the overall architecture by which organizational data can be managed and understood. Additionally, you will examine the various components and technologies that make up effective BI and understand how they fit within the larger business.

Finally, you will be guided through fundamental design principles and communication concepts behind effective dashboards and reports and how to present findings from data to other business stakeholders. This certificate ensures that your data analysis skills are demonstrated effectively so the leaders of your organization understand your strategic value.

Note: It is recommended that you complete the Forecasting and Predictive Analytics Certificate, or ensure that you have equivalent knowledge and skills, before starting the Data Visualization Certificate.

Learning Labs

This is an interactive learning program that includes bonus hands-on learning labs that will expose you to the tools needed to implement an analytics practice in a practical way and that will equip you to deploy those tools as needed within your organization. You will practice using various technologies for preparing, analyzing, and managing data sets in the real world.

*Time spent on learning labs does not award CPE and completing learning labs is not a requirement for earning the certificate.

WHO WILL BENEFIT

• Accounting and finance professionals, especially those interested in learning and applying data analysis techniques to help their organizations make informed, data-driven business decisions.

KEY TOPICS

• Communicating insights from data
• Making decisions from data
• Ways to visualize data
• Design principles for visualizing data
• Setting up business intelligence in organizations
• Components of BI platforms
• How underlying data architecture affects reporting and predictive analytics techniques

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Formulate a data story with visualizations.
• Identify key stakeholder perspectives.
• Determine organizational data needs.
• Differentiate between common BI frameworks.
• Use visualization tools to share data stories across the organization.
• Recall visualization best practices

Digital Badge: Your Professional Distinction

Set yourself apart as a future-ready financial professional. Upon completion, you will be awarded with a certificate in the form of a digital badge. Digital badges allow you to distinguish yourself in the marketplace and show your commitment to quality. The badge can be posted to your social media profiles and linked to your resume or email signature, providing maximum visibility to your achievement.

Credit Info