Summer 2026 Internship

Turn classroom cybersecurity skills into real project experience.

A 6 week Summer 2026 remote-first internship for students ready to build resume-worthy work with mentorship from Growth Sector, Cyberdefenders, and SF Bay Area Employers and Startup Ecosystem partners.

Program Focus

  • Applied cybersecurity projects
  • Open-source tools, nonprofit security assessments, SOC 2 audit readiness, hardware research, honeypots, threat research, and resume-quality deliverables.

Why Apply

  • Built for 2nd and 3rd year cybersecurity students who want credible experience beyond coursework.

Real Experience

  • Work on practical cybersecurity problems with constraints, feedback, and deliverables that resemble real team projects.

Resume-Worthy Work

  • Leave with project artifacts you can discuss in interviews, portfolios, transfer applications, and internship searches.

Employer Network

  • Meet mentors and Bay Area partners who can help you understand cybersecurity roles, expectations, and next steps.

Program Overview

  • Duration: 6 weeks (Mid-June to mid-August)
  • Format: Remote-first project-based work with mentorship, regular feedback, and a couple optional in-person sessions.
  • Expected Workload: 15-20 hours/week designed so students can manage existing work, school, family, or other commitments.
  • Compensation: Unpaid experience-focused internship designed around practical deliverables.

AI Security Bootcamp Option

  • Students will have an optional 1 week bootcamp before project work begins.

From First Principles

  • Learn about the exciting intersection of AI, machine learning, and security, including the practical challenges of securing AI workloads, all from first principles.

Important Dates

  • Application Deadline: May 23, 2026
  • Phone Interviews Complete: June 1, 2026
  • Acceptance Notifications: June 12, 2026
  • Program Starts: June 15, 2026
  • Waitlist Update: June 17, 2026

Objective

  • Develop practical, open-source cybersecurity tools, workflows, assessments, compliance artifacts, and research deliverables across multiple project tracks.

Project Tracks

Interns can contribute through various project tracks:

Project Track 1: Malware Copilot: AI-Assisted Reverse Engineering Lab

  • Build, improve, and benchmark Model Context Protocol tools for an AI malware analysis agent.

Project Track 2: Secure the Mission: Nonprofit Security Assessment Lab

  • Provide hands-on technical support and a structured security risk assessment for a real community organization.

Project Track 3: Trust but Verify: SOC 2 Audit Readiness

  • Build SOC 2 Type II audit readiness by supporting a compliance program with real deliverables.

Project Track 4: Lens Check: IoT Camera Privacy Lab

  • Analyze a low-cost consumer IoT camera in a controlled lab to assess privacy, firmware, network, and cloud security risks.

Project Track 5: Ghost Cloud: LLM Honeypots in AWS

  • Build and evaluate LLM-assisted honeypots in AWS focusing on safe deployment and useful security telemetry.

Project Track 6: Signal in the Noise: Threat Intel for Community Defenders

  • Research threat actors and build structured threat actor profiles.

Project Track 7: Prompt to Pentest: LLM-Assisted Security Testing Lab

  • Use LLMs to support authorized vulnerability discovery and custom pentesting tool development in controlled lab environments.

Student Testimonials

  • Past students have used Cyber Defenders projects as a bridge into security work and community leadership.

"As a community college student, the projects and experiences I engaged in through this program helped me develop the foundation that enabled my transition into fulltime DevSecOps work..." - Drew Gibson

Interview Phase

  • Applications are now closed while selected applicants move through interviews.