Google funds new cybersecurity clinics at 15 colleges

Google, in coordination with the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics, granted 15 colleges, universities and community colleges up to $1 million each to create new cybersecurity clinics at campuses across the country.

In addition to the financial support, the selected higher education institutions will also receive opportunities for student mentorship from Google. The company’s cybersecurity clinics fund seeks to strengthen members of the Consortium of Cybersecurity clinics and bolster the cyber workforce, according to a Google announcement.

“It’s essential that we invest in growing a strong, diverse and widespread cybersecurity workforce to help protect everyone—from critical infrastructure to small businesses and schools,” Heather Adkins, Google’s vice president of security engineering, said in a press release. “The 15 clinics that we’re helping to establish serve a wide variety of students across all corners of the U.S. and we’re excited to see the impact they’ll have in their local communities.”

Leaders from the University of Hawaii, one of the recipient schools, wrote in a news release that the funding will allow its cybersecurity clinic to begin offering a free online introductory course on cyber topics to 500 students over the next five years beginning in January 2025. The new clinic will be based at the university’s Maui College but will collaborate with campuses across the system.

“Cybersecurity clinics at higher education institutions provide free digital security services to under-resourced organizations, similar to how law or medical schools offer free community clinics,” UH Chief Information Officer Garret Yoshimi said in the release. “UH’s new cybersecurity clinics will give students an opportunity to learn cybersecurity and artificial intelligence skills in a hands-on manner, while helping to protect vulnerable organizations and critical infrastructure—such as local small businesses, hospitals, schools and energy grids—from cyber attacks.”

San Diego State University also received support from Google’s Cybersecurity Clinics Funds to establish a cyber clinic and provide educational opportunity related to cybersecurity and AI skills while helping protect local small businesses, hospitals, schools and energy grids from cyberattacks.

“This new partnership, made possible by Google’s Cybersecurity Clinics Fund, will undoubtedly bolster our regional cybersecurity infrastructure and create new hands-on educational opportunities for our students in this fast-growing, in-demand industry,” James Frazee, SDSU’s interim chief information officer and vice president for Information Technology, said in the announcement.