Building on a model that has been successful since 2013, the student experience will follow a service-learning model with a classroom and a clinical component. The classroom experience will give students the practical tools and knowledge to be better cybersecurity professionals as well as the necessary background knowledge for their specific projects. The clinical component will involve directly interacting with community partners to understand their needs, assess their current cybersecurity practices, identify gaps, and recommend solutions. To express your interest in the student experience of the Clinic, please fill out the survey below or contact blueteam@indiana.edu for more information.
Student Application
The IU Cybersecurity Clinic is committed to providing on-the-ground cybersecurity expertise to support local governments, school corporations, small businesses, and other entities that lack the knowledge, capability, or bandwidth to solve the growing cyber threats they face. IU faculty members and students will partner alongside these community entities as cybersecurity consultants, focusing on instilling technical, managerial, and legal cybersecurity best practices. To express interest in partnering with the Clinic, please fill out the survey below or contact blueteam@indiana.edu for more information.
Client Application
The Growing Cyber Threat
Every day, cybersecurity threats grab news headlines around the world – whether its detailing the latest data breach or the most recent victim of a ransomware attack. While many cybersecurity discussions focus on federal reform efforts, state and local governments face a range of common cybersecurity challenges that point to a need for more robust critical infrastructure protection. Critical infrastructure operators—including municipal governments and small businesses across Indiana—often do not have the knowledge, or the capability, to tackle this challenge on their own. The Clinic is committed to partnering with these entities to improve their cyber resilience and help develop and train technical, managerial, and legal best practices into their organization.
The Gap in the Cyber Workforce
While the cybersecurity threat is growing, the workforce to combat it is not keeping pace. Estimates of the growing cybersecurity workforce gap range from two to three million in the next few years. Indiana University has been devoted to training the next generation of cybersecurity leaders through a multitude of efforts, and the Clinic is just one of those opportunities. The Clinic will provide on-the-ground, practical experience to participating students, further helping develop the requisite skills to excel in the workplace and ultimately decreasing the deficiency in the cybersecurity workforce. For other opportunities to strengthen your cybersecurity skills, visit www.cybersecurity.iu.edu and learn about the Master’s Program in Cybersecurity Risk Management.
While the IU Cybersecurity Clinic is in its infancy, IU has been a national leader in this field for many years, and the Clinic will leverage existing resources and expertise by expanding on our current models. Our goals are to:
- Work with community partners to create realistic cybersecurity solutions and instill best practices from a legal, business, and technical standpoint.
- Develop an array of resources for the community, with each project having tangible takeaways that may be used by other similarly situated organizations.
- Provide students with tangible, hands-on experience to a growing field, ultimately helping them gain access to a growing and largely under-resourced sector.
- Leverage the strong tradition of cybersecurity leadership at Indiana University and foster more community relationships along with more robust cyber resilience in the organizations we serve.
IU has a successful track record of service-learning projects dating back to 2013. Some of our past clients and partners include:
- Indiana Dept. of Homeland Security
- Indiana Dept. of Justice
- Indiana Office of Technology
- Monroe County Community School Corporation
- Bloomington IT Department
- The town of Speedway, Indiana
- US Consumer Reports
- Indiana Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IN-ISAC)
- Australia National University
To express interest in being a student with the Clinic, please fill out the Student Application.
To express interest as a potential client of the Clinic, please fill out the Client Application.
To be added to the listserv or get more information about the Clinic, please contact blueteam@indiana.edu.
Clinic Directors
Dr. Scott J. Shackelford
Faculty Director and Founder
sjshacke@indiana.edu
Rachel D. Dockery
Acting Executive Director
rdockery@indiana.edu
