C5 Alliance Guernsey associate consultant, Claira Miles has been awarded an MBA in Cyber Security (with distinction) from Coventry University, the first person in the Channel Islands to do so and only one of six people to hold this qualification to date.

She will be using her knowledge to further develop C5’s expertise in this area, with a focus on the business side of cyber security.

The MBA, the first of its kind, focused on key management issues in the context of information security, to bridge the gap between the traditional technical aspects and the business. Topics traditionally included in MBAs, such as strategic thinking and leadership, human resource management, financial accounting and risk management were delivered from a cyber-perspective to give an in-depth understanding of the cyber risks faced by businesses today.

A former Cambridge University graduate, Miss Miles studied the Coventry University MBA in Cyber Security and is part of the very first cohort to qualify under the new master’s degree offered. She started her Masters in January 2015 and submitted her dissertation in August last year.

“With twenty years of international business experience, and financial regulation and business analysis, I chose to take this Masters to broaden my knowledge of one of the most critical risks that businesses face today. Cyber security is a development area for almost everyone at the moment and I wanted to find out more about the way we can approach the topic from a strategic business perspective to manage and mitigate the risks” Miss Miles said.

“Working with C5 Alliance as an associate consultant, I can see so many applications for my studies in my daily work, which I look forward to developing to the benefit of the business and our clients.”

C5 Alliance Guernsey managing director, Marc Lainé, said: “This is a particularly exceptional achievement; Claira’s strategic business knowledge in cyber security is an important addition to the island’s knowledge bank particularly at a time when hacks and private information being made public are so much in the news.

“C5 Alliance’s clients will certainly reap the rewards of her considerable effort to gain not only a Masters in this field but with a distinction.”