Zareefa Mustafa

Zareefa is a cybersecurity professional with over 15 years experience. She is an advocate of implementing cybersecurity best practices; information security and IT governance frameworks and standards within an organisation; and promoting the inclusion of women in IT and cybersecurity.

Zareefa has a BSc in Computer Science from University of Abuja, an MSc in Mobile Computer Systems from Staffordshire University UK and a PhD in Defence and Security (with focus on Cloud Forensics) from Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the UK. She also holds several industry certifications including PECB ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Auditor, ISO 22301 Lead Implementer, ISO 31000 Lead Risk Manager, COBIT 2019 Foundation and COBIT 2019 Design and Implementation.

She serves on various national and international committees including AfricaCERT Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cybersecurity. Her research interest is Digital forensics with focus on Cloud forensics. She was part of the inaugural African delegation that was hosted by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for ICS training at Idaho National Laboratory.

At NITDA, she was part of the team that drafted the Nigeria ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV), a policy document aimed at improving the tech ecosystem which has become a foundation document for the innovation ecosystem in Nigeria and has now evolved into the Nigerian Startup Act (NSA).

In NITDA’s partnership with Academia, she is part of the NITDA team working with the Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology and Enhanced Learning (ACETEL) at National Open University of Nigeria. She participated in curriculum design and content development for MSC and PhD in Cybersecurity and co-authored Malware and Digital Forensics (MSc) and Digital Forensics and Incident Response (PhD).