MIT Course Helps Public Sector Prevent Cyberattacks
MIT News AI · rss · 2026-07-14
MIT's Cybersecurity Clinic offers free cybersecurity assessments to local governments and healthcare providers through a course format, while allowing students to learn defensive social engineering in real-world projects. The article notes: - Following a 2019 ransomware attack, Baltimore's city files, real estate transactions, and billing systems were severely impacted. - From 2018–2024, US government entities experienced 525 ransomware attacks (roughly one every 5 days), causing an estimated $1.09 billion in downtime losses. - Many small cities and hospitals lack sufficient security talent and budgets, necessitating low-cost, sustainable protection paths. - The course emphasizes that "humans" remain the largest attack surface; defense is not just a technical issue but involves organizational collaboration, leadership structure, and budget constraints. - AI makes it easier for attackers to automate vulnerability discovery and launch attacks, accelerating the pace of cybersecurity education and practice updates. The course workflow includes a 4-week online module and scenario exercises, followed by on-site projects after passing an exam. Students then write risk assessment reports for clients and provide actionable improvement roadmaps. The article also lists various guest speakers covering energy system risk modeling, industrial control systems security, and related state/federal agency projects.
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