Certified AI Security Architect

Cyera's most advanced, most requested AI Security School certification — a vendor-neutral program that gives security, governance, platform, and business leaders a practical, step-by-step framework to move their organization from its current AI security maturity to its target maturity, using people, process, and technology across the full Security for AI Journey.

Get certified

100% vendor-neutral training

Learn practical AI security concepts — mapped to NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, the EU AI Act, and OWASP's Top 10 for LLMs — that apply across tools, vendors, and AI architectures.

11 in-depth modules

Build a practical foundation across the five-stage Security for AI Journey: Discover & Classify, Govern, Protect & Control, Detect & Recover, and Assure.

10–12 weeks to complete

Recommended pace: 3–4 hours per week.

Two Ways to Enroll

For the first time, this certification is available in two formats — choose the path that matches where you're starting from.

Full Certification

Modules 0–10 (11 modules)

Best for: learners new to Cyera's AI Security School, or who haven't completed Certified Security for AI Fundamentals / Certified AI Security Practitioner.

Covers foundations (AI taxonomy, adoption paths, the Security for AI Journey, maturity modeling) plus all five journey stages and the capstone action-planning module.

Outcome: a complete, from-scratch path from understanding AI risk to architecting and prioritizing a defensible AI security program.

Enroll in the bridging course

Bridging Course

5 stage-specific modules

Best for: learners who have already completed Certified Security for AI Fundamentals / Certified AI Security Practitioner and don't need to repeat the foundational modules.

Covers the five stage-specific modules — Discover & Classify, Govern, Protect & Control, Detect & Recover, and Assure — that build directly on practitioner-level knowledge to show exactly what to do at each stage of the journey.

Outcome: the same Certified AI Security Architect credential, reached faster by building on what you already know.

Enroll in the bridging course

Enroll to become a certified Data Security Architect

This certification builds on the foundations from Certified Security for AI Fundamentals / Certified AI Security Practitioner and takes them further — giving you a structured, five-stage journey and a maturity model to move from wherever your organization stands today to where it needs to be. You'll learn to discover and classify every AI tool and dataset in use, govern and control it, detect and recover from incidents, and prove — not just claim — that your AI systems are safe, compliant, and audit-ready.

Get certified

What you’ll learn

Grasp how AI systems actually work — foundation models, LLM engines, RAG indexes, agents, and the Model Context Protocol — and why that changes the security model.

Distinguish Public AI, Embedded AI, and Homegrown AI adoption paths, and map each to its unique risk profile and required controls.

Apply the five-stage Security for AI Journey — Discover & Classify, Govern, Protect & Control, Detect & Recover, and Assure — to structure security across people, process, and technology.

Use the Cyera Security for AI Maturity Model to score your organization from Initial to Optimized at every stage of the journey.

Confidently align your AI security program to NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, the EU AI Act, and the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs.

Enforce runtime guardrails — AI firewalls, DLP, IAM, and AI Security Posture Management (AISPM) — to contain prompt injection, data leakage, and tool misuse.

Build monitoring, audit trail, and rollback capabilities so drift, hallucinations, and misuse are caught and contained before they cause damage.

Turn a maturity assessment into a prioritized, phased action plan — near-, mid-, and long-term — using real-world worked examples.

Skills

AI Discovery & Inventory

AI Risk Classification

AI Governance & Ownership Mapping

AI Policy & Approval Workflow Design

Runtime Guardrail Enforcement

AI Threat Detection & Incident Response

AI Red Teaming

Data Provenance & Lineage Tracking

AI Security Maturity Assessment

AI Security Roadmap Planning

Cross-Functional AI Risk Communication

Frameworks, models & standards

NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF)

ISO/IEC 42001

EU AI Act

OWASP Top 10 for LLMs

Cyera Security for AI Journey (5 stages)

Cyera Security for AI Maturity Model

Responsible AI Security Framework

Concepts & Frameworks

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

AI Security Posture Management (AISPM)

Identity & Access Management (IAM)

AI Firewalls, DLP & Gateways

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

Shadow AI

Public AI / Embedded AI / Homegrown AI adoption paths

Outcomes and takeaways

Lead AI risk conversations with a shared vocabulary that works across security, data, legal, risk, and product teams.

Evaluate your organization's entire AI footprint — every tool, pipeline, model, and agent — not just a single chatbot or model.

Apply a consistent, five-stage structure to secure AI across its full lifecycle, from discovery through assurance.

Score your current AI security maturity and set realistic, risk-based targets across people, process, and technology.

Map your controls defensibly to NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, the EU AI Act, and OWASP's Top 10 for LLMs.

Recognize why AI security is a lifecycle discipline, not a single tool or control.

Build a prioritized, phased roadmap that closes maturity gaps in the right order — foundation first, then automation, then continuous optimization.

Earn the Certified AI Security Architect credential — a shareable badge and certificate that recognizes advanced, practical AI security leadership.

5000+ community of AI defenders

“What stood out most was the practical approach to AI security fundamentals and the clear framework for understanding governance, risk, and security maturity.”

Oksana Riabichko

Vice President, North America

"The course is well put-together and covers everything one needs to know about AI Security. Great job! Kudos to everyone who worked hard to put this training materials and certification exam together. I will be proudly displaying my badge anywhere I can!"

May Ledesma

Educator, Systems Analyst, Silicon Labs

"Very informative introduction into Data Lifecycle Management and Data Secure Posture Management."

Kapil Choudhary

Chief Manager, State Bank of India

“Most certifications add letters after your name, the DSPM Architect credential adds real leverage. It hands you a battle-tested playbook for discovering and locking down sensitive data across sprawling cloud and SaaS estates, so you can translate risk into business terms that resonate from the boardroom to the dev squad.”

Ari Harrison

Director of IT, BAMKO

“I genuinely believe this certification fills a critical gap in today’s security landscape. It gave me the structure and language to lead data security initiatives confidently—across teams, tools, and business units. Whether you're hands‑on or leading strategy, it’s one of the most practical, forward‑looking certifications I’ve seen.”

Amy Mayo

CyberSecurity Analyst, Finance of America

Expert-Led Curriculum

The Certified AI Security Architect curriculum was built by Cyera's Security and Services team, authored by Michael Ferguson, Principal Strategist, with input from expert advisors Sol Rashidi, Kayla Williams, and Michael Mahar. Built on Cyera's proven AI and data security frameworks and mapped to NIST, ISO, the EU AI Act, and OWASP's, it takes learners from understanding how AI works to scoring their organization's maturity and building an action plan for their own environment.

Module 0

Introduction to the certification

Textual

2 Hours

Understand what this certification is (and isn't), why AI security is a lifecycle discipline rather than a single tool, and preview the five-stage Security for AI Journey and maturity model you'll apply throughout the course.

Module 1

Origin & Taxonomy

Textual

4 Hours

Trace how AI evolved from 1950s symbolic logic to today's autonomous, AI-native enterprise, then learn the vocabulary — foundation models, LLM engines, RAG indexes, agents, and the Model Context Protocol — that lets security teams speak the same language as data science teams.

Module 2

Common AI Adoption Paths, Risk and Controls

Textual

4 Hours

Break down the three ways AI enters the enterprise — Public AI, Embedded AI, and Homegrown AI — and map each to its unique risk profile and the technical and governance controls (DSPM, AISPM, IAM, AI firewalls and gateways) that contain it.

Module 3

Security for AI Journey

Textual

4.5 Hours

Learn the five-stage Security for AI Journey — Discover & Classify, Govern, Protect & Control, Detect & Recover, and Assure — the core framework used throughout the rest of the course to align people, process, and technology at every stage.

Module 4

Security for AI Maturity Modeling

Textual

3 Hours

Score your organization's current maturity — from Initial to Optimized — across all five stages of the Security for AI Journey, and learn how industry, budget, and risk appetite shape a realistic target level.

Module 5

Discover & Classify

Textual

5 Hours

Locate, inventory, and classify every AI tool, model, agent, and dataset in your environment — the first stage of the journey, and the one every other stage depends on.

Module 6

Govern

Textual

5 Hours

Assign ownership, risk tiers, and approval workflows to every AI tool in use, turning discovered AI from an unmanaged asset into something a named owner is accountable for.

Module 7

Protect & Control

Textual

5 Hours

Turn policy into runtime guardrails. Apply AI firewalls, DLP, IAM, and AI Security Posture Management (AISPM) to contain prompt injection, data leakage, and tool misuse.

Module 8

Detect & Recover

Textual

5 Hours

Monitor the full prompt-to-action chain, build audit trails, and prepare rollback playbooks so drift, hallucinations, and misuse are caught and contained before they cause damage.

Module 9

Assure

Textual

4.5 Hours

Move from good intentions to proof. Learn to red-team, test, and document AI systems — and track data provenance — so you can demonstrate that AI is safe, accurate, and audit-ready.

Module 10

Establishing & Prioritizing Your Action Plan

Textual

3 Hours

Turn your maturity assessment into a prioritized, phased roadmap using Cyera's Assess–Plan–Execute framework, illustrated through two worked examples — a regulated healthcare provider and a resource-constrained startup.

Earn Your 
AI Security Architect
certification!