Frequently Asked Questions

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Cybercrime refers to criminal activity that is carried out using the internet or other digital communication technologies. It includes a range of illegal activities such as hacking, phishing, identity theft, and fraud.  We are founded to help train residents and citizens to combat those issues in the United States.

The courses and certificates in MyCyberAcademy.US a program of CWS-US Inc, a 501(c)3 non-profit, located in South Bend, IN and operations throughout the United States is not accredited by a higher education commission. However, the faculty have taught at or currently within accredited programs and the courses are transferable to colleges towards an accredited degree.  Contact info@cws-us.org for specific course and college information as the information is updated daily.  You can also contact colleges listed in the Partners page directly about course transfer. Our instructors do have required instructor training credentials through our partners including Cisco Academy and have at least a Master's degree in the field and professional experience.

Yes. We will accept credit for a current industry certification and potentially college coursework as credit towards specific courses in the certificate tracks.  A transferred course which may count in a particular track, may not count in a different track and you should discuss directly with the track/program faculty advisor for specifics.

The courses in the MyCyberAcademy.US program are not free as they do come with significant live instructor supported time and labs. However, we do seek grant funding to assist students and as that information becomes available we will notify the potential students and post on this site. We do have self-enroll courses through a partnership with Cisco Network Academy and other partners which are not connected to any specific program, do not come with any live instructor support, and do not include labs. Those courses are intended to give students a taste of what the field is about, and to assist students in bridging the digital divide.

For MyCyberAcademy.US certificates students need a computer which runs Windows Operating System or can run Windows OS in a virtual machine. The minimum hardware requirements are 500GB of free hard drive space, and 8 GB of RAM. There are no specific CPU or GPU requirements, except that AI interested students should consider an advanced NVIDA GPU if they wish to pursue further implementation.

No. Prior experience is not required. You may need some preparatory work to be ready for the first course as it is a college level course. Your Faculty Advisor will provide you with what you need to do to get ready, if anything.

These certificate programs are open to any US Citizen or permanent resident. Preference is given to active duty military, veterans, their spouses and first responders. Non-permanent residents who reside in the US are considered based upon legal status. 

Yes. Certifications are stackable.  You may complete one certification program and then take only the required additional courses for the other program. For example, you may complete the Digital Forensics program and only need to take the Cloud Security Administration and Security course to also complete the Cloud Security Certificate.  You would need to additionally take Python Essentials and AI Fundamentals for Cybersecurity courses to complete the AI Security Certificate.

Classes are taught for three hours per session in a live zoom format. There are two sessions per week per course, on either Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-9PM Eastern or on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the same time.  All classes are required for later review.

No. The courses are taught in cohort format, meaning you have a group of students with whom to collaborate and keep pace throughout the period of the course.

Students can participate in virtual job fairs, competitions, and fireside chats with industry leaders.

Registration for the next course happens half-way through the current course and all payments are due two weeks before the next course occurs, so... everyone should be able to take a break in between course sessions. 

NOTE: In the Dec/Jan break there are four weeks off due to the holidays. 

We are not an accredited school so we do not transfer credit into our programs. However, we will consider courses taken at an accredited college to count for credit towards one of our courses. See your Facutlty Advisor for more information.

Daily attendance is tracked.  Trainees who do not attend nor participate actively (submit an assignment) in the first week of classes may be dropped from the class. The Academic Advisor and Faculty Advisor for the trainee will both try to contact the trainee before they are dropped.

Students must actively participate at least once every two weeks or the student may be dropped from the course for lack of participation.  Active participation may be participating live in class or submitting assignments onlnie even if not in class.  A student who is dropped from a class may be allowed to join a future class, but may be required to pay the full or possibly a pro-rated course fee to attend depending upon the circumstances of who paid for the course and why the student was not attending.

If a grant or Title IV funds are used to pay for a course for a trainee, additional restrictions may be in place by the grantor and will be detailed at the time of the acceptance of those funds by the trainee.

A 10% deposit is due at the time you are accepted in the program by a faculty advisor.  The remaining course fees are due two weeks prior to the start of the class. For example, if you are taking one course starting on October 20, $195 is due once you are accepted into the program. The remaining $1,800 is due October 6. If all fees are not paid by the Friday before classes start, you may be dropped from the class.  You will be refunded at that time all you have paid except for the deposit of $195/course. 

Deposits for courses are non-refundable.

The remaining cost of the course (90%) which has been paid, may be refunded up to three days after the course starts. After three days of the course start date, 50% of the course is refundable until four weeks of the course has passed. After four weeks, there is no refund for the course. However, a student who drops the course after four weeks for reasons other than military or medical may retake the course again at a 50% reduction in the course fee.

Trainees who must drop a course due to medical or military reasons may retake the course at a later time at no charge or may be given extra time to complete the work.

Trainees who have not satisfactorily completed at least 60% of the course content by the end of the term may be given a one week extension by the instructor, but requires the authorization of both the instructor and faculty advisor. See Refund policy for military and medical reasons.

As the courses are non-credit the grades while calculated numerically on a scale of 0 to 100 are converted to pass/fail for final recording.  A passing score is 60% for the course to continue on to the next course. However, to receive a badge from industry partners, typically trainees are required to score 70% or higher on the final exam. To be eligible to sit for a certification through the program, the student must complete the related course with a grade of 80% or higher.

To be eligible for a free certification voucher, the student must pass the related course at 80% or higher. Then the student will be provided test preparation which must be passed at 90% or higher. The test preparation may be repeated as much as needed for up to 8 weeks. Once  90% or higher is obtained the trainee will be provided a free voucher towards the related certification.  Each trainee is only eligible for one voucher and only after having successfully completed at least three paid courses in the MyCyberAcademy.US program. The voucher will be valid for 8 weeks.

This process has proven successful for thousands of students with over 95% having passed the certification on the first try. A retake voucher is not guaranteed if failed, but requests for retake will be considered.