Updated in May 2025.

This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. This course equips learners with the skills and knowledge to manage security governance, compliance, and risk management within an organization. By the end of the course, you will understand how to build and oversee security programs that meet industry standards while mitigating risk effectively. You’ll learn to create and enforce policies, assess compliance, and respond to threats with strategies to protect sensitive information and resources. Throughout the course, you will explore security program management by delving into guidelines, policies, and risk management strategies. The course will guide you through risk identification, risk analysis, and building a risk register to help you make informed decisions. You will also study vendor assessments, compliance monitoring, audits, and penetration testing to secure systems and ensure adherence to laws and regulations. The course progresses by exploring the critical components of governance structures, defining roles and responsibilities, and understanding the external considerations that shape security measures. You will gain practical insights into risk tolerance and appetite and learn how to manage risks effectively while maintaining compliance with regulations. Furthermore, we will examine best practices for reporting, user training, and the execution of security frameworks. This course is ideal for professionals in security, compliance, and risk management fields, as well as those looking to enter these sectors. The course has no prerequisites, but familiarity with basic IT and security concepts will be beneficial. The difficulty level is intermediate, making it suitable for learners with some foundational knowledge of security and governance.