Summer Program!

Our 2019 Abridged Summer program is hosted by Merritt & Laney College and is starting on July 9th! Demo Day is Saturday, August 17th at Berkeley SkyDeck! The 2018 Summer program was at San Jose Evergreen College and this video made by the students showcases all the fun!! So apply to this program soon!

Demo Day Sign-Up! Why Get Involved? Support Us!

A light mood Intro to 2018 Cyber Defenders Summer Program Projects! - YouTube

A light mood Intro to 2018 Cyber Defenders Summer Program Projects!

Summer Program

College students and working professionals welcome

  • Participate in a 6 week long summer program which gives you a leg up on industry experience!
  • Build healthy security awareness practices for yourself, friends, family, school, and community!
  • Come up with ideas and get help prototyping them with industry mentors and teammates!
  • Contribute to opensource cyber security projects with help of industry mentors and teammates!

During this program, you will

  • Get hands-on Cyber Security problem solving experience.
  • Referencable experience contributing to open source projects.
  • Work on a industry mentored tangible cybersecurity project in a team setting.
  • Get an opportunity to present your work to security experts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Will you provide computers?

No, we expect hackathon participants to bring their laptop computers. Please reach out to us if you will have issues with that. Having said thanks to TechShop, we will have a few computers available as loaners, so reach out to us early to book them.

Should I apply sooner to qualify?

Yes, we have limited seats so please apply early.

What day/time will the program be on?

For in-class sessions currently we are shooting for Tues & Thursdays. Idea is that in-class is from 1-4 on Tuesday at Merritt and Thursday 3-6 at Laney (still TBD), the rest of 14 hours the groups are expected to work on your own time. We are trying to get a feel for what might work best for the group, and are also working on having classrooms available for the rest of the days for the groups to work together.

Program Schedule*

  • Week 1.1 (July 9, P-218 Merritt College, 4-6pm) - Working in Cyber Security Industry
  • Week 1.2 (July 11, G-274 Laney College, 5-7pm) - Lecture by Celeste Matarazzo, LLNL
  • Week 2.1 (July 16, P-218 Merritt College, 4-6pm) - Open Source Contributions Due
  • Week 2.2 (July 18, G-274 Laney College, 5-7pm) - Lecture by Aaron Goldstein, Tanium
  • Week 3.1 (July 23, P-103 Merritt College and Online) - Mentor Feedback
  • Week 3.2 (July 25, G-274 Laney College, 5-7pm) - Lecture by Bill Reid, AWS
  • Week 4.1 (July 30, P-103 Merritt College) - Sprint 1 Presentations
  • Week 4.2 (Aug 1, G-274 Laney College) - Lecture by Brian Koref, Safe-Intacct & Caleb Fenton, SentinelOne
  • Week 5.1 (Aug 6, P-103 Merritt College) - Code Reviews
  • Week 5.2 (Aug 8, G-274 Laney College) - Lecture by Mel Masterson, AirBnB
  • Week 6.1 (Aug 13, P-103 Merritt College) - Project Completion
  • Week 6.2 (Aug 15, G-274 Laney College) - Lecture by Ahmad Nafeez (Security Researcher), & Presentations
  • Week 7 (Aug 17, Saturday, Berkeley Skydeck) - Demo Day!

* = tentative

Guest Lecture Schedule*

  • Cyber Security Research: A Data Scientist’s Perspective by Celeste Matarazzo, LLNL July 11, 5:15pm - 6:15pm at G-274 Laney College: Cybersecurity has become one of the nation’s top priorities. Celeste will provide an overview and discuss recent trends facing computer security researchers and practitioners. Recording available.

  • Hands-on Cyber Defense: by Aaron Goldstein, Tanium July 18, 5pm - 6pm at G-274 Laney College: Aaron will talk about blue team defenses and the footprint left behind from an attack. Recording available, and Questions. Slides are shared as well.

  • On Cloud Security, and Tips for Cyber Security Career by Bill Reid, Amazon, July 25, 4:30pm-6pm G-274 Laney College. Recording available, and list of Questions and Resources.

  • On Leading Cyber Security Teams And Red Teaming by Brian Koref, Sage Intacct, Aug 1, 5:00pm-6pm G-274 Laney College. Recording available, and list of Questions and Resources.

  • On Security Research and Machine Learning in Cyber Security by Caleb Fenton, SentinelOne, Aug 1, 6:00pm-7pm G-274 Laney College. Recording available, and list of Questions and Resources.

  • On Threat Intelligence by Mel Masterson, AirBnB, Aug 8, 5:15pm-6:30pm G-274 Laney College. This lecture on threat intelligence will be interactive. Attend remotely, and list of Assignments and Resources. Slides are available.

  • On Appsec Research by Ahmad Nafeez, Security Researcher, Aug 15, 5:00pm-6:30pm *Online Only*. Attend online, and link to Slides, please add to list of Questions and Resources for the speaker.

Projects *

CLTC Sponsored - Security for Non-Profits

Cyber Defenders are working with a local non-profit to start a SafeTag based security audit for the organization. The group has so far completed a security survey for administrators and leadership of the organization, and are working on providing security tools for securing their website and training the employees. In addition to practical security fixes for the organization, this project will deliver a security audit report to help the organization create a security policy.

Sage Intacct Sponsored - Web Application Penetration Test

Cyber Defenders are working with Sage Intacct to do a web application penetration testing. The group has so far completed 3 of the OWASP top 10 web application attacks on the application, and plans to complete the rest in upcoming weeks. This project will deliver a penetration testing report to help secure the application under test.

Lib13 Inc Sponsored - Application Security for React Developers

In this 3-week program, a group of students will learn how to build a react-js application and test each other's application for vulnerabilities. Through the process, the group will become familiar with secure coding and developing hardened projects.

Cyber Defenders is a cybersecurity program training Silicon Valley high school and community college students in industry-level cybersecurity skills including application security, network security, penetration testing, machine learning and AI. Employer partners include Facebook, Malwarebytes, Tanium, Symantec, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Shape Security and others. Alumni have transferred to CS degree programs at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and cybersecurity internships.