--- title: How MIT students are helping to prevent cyberattacks description: MIT's Cybersecurity Clinic, housed in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, trains students to conduct pro-bono cybersecurity vulnerability assessments... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-mit-students-are-helping-to-prevent-cyberattacks-ijgupydg3 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How MIT students are helping to prevent cyberattacks | daily.dev og:description: MIT's Cybersecurity Clinic, housed in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, trains students to conduct pro-bono cybersecurity vulnerability assessments... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-mit-students-are-helping-to-prevent-cyberattacks-ijgupydg3 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/iJgupydG3.png og:image:alt: How MIT students are helping to prevent cyberattacks og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How MIT students are helping to prevent cyberattacks **[MIT News](https://daily.dev/sources/mit)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary MIT's Cybersecurity Clinic, housed in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, trains students to conduct pro-bono cybersecurity vulnerability assessments for under-resourced municipalities and healthcare organizations. Founded in 2019, the clinic has completed over 40 assessments, primarily for New England public entities. The course emphasizes 'defensive social engineering' — the idea that cybersecurity is as much a human and organizational challenge as a technical one. Students complete online modules, pass a certification exam, then work in teams to assess client vulnerabilities and deliver actionable recommendations. Common low-cost recommendations include multi-factor authentication, regular patching, employee phishing training, and ransomware response planning. The clinic's curriculum is also available as a free MOOC and has inspired a 61-institution consortium of university cybersecurity clinics. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What are the most common low-cost recommendations for improving a municipality's cybersecurity? Key recommendations include inventorying all hardware and software on the network and tracking access, patching software and backing up data regularly, requiring multi-factor authentication and frequent password updates, training employees not to open unknown attachments, preparing an attack response plan with clear lines of authority and a stance on paying ransoms, and only using vendors with good cybersecurity hygiene. These measures are described as low-cost and capable of avoiding 80 percent or more of potential attack costs and damage. _Municipal IT teams weighing which security basics to prioritize can find practical roundups like this on daily.dev._ ### How many ransomware attacks have hit US government entities in recent years? From 2018 to 2024, there were 525 ransomware attacks on U.S. government entities, roughly one every five days, according to Comparitech, leading to an estimated $1.09 billion in downtime costs. In 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center documented an average of 2,765 cyberattacks targeting Americans daily. _Track how attack trends against public infrastructure evolve by following security coverage on daily.dev._ ### What is the MIT Cybersecurity Clinic and how does it help local governments? The MIT Cybersecurity Clinic is a course in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, launched in 2019 by Jungwoo Chun and Lawrence Susskind, where students complete certification modules and then are assigned to teams that produce free, confidential vulnerability assessments for municipalities and health-care organizations. More than 40 assessments have been delivered, mostly to New England clients, and the training modules are also offered publicly via MITx. _Anyone researching applied security training programs can keep up with initiatives like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Learn Cybersecurity from Harvard University](https://daily.dev/posts/learn-cybersecurity-from-harvard-university-tx9aiqjs4) · freeCodeCamp · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Calling on Cyber Pros to Help Defend City Hall](https://daily.dev/posts/calling-on-cyber-pros-to-help-defend-city-hall-zipo6xa4k) · Dark Reading · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Legal protection for ethical hacking is only the first step](https://daily.dev/posts/legal-protection-for-ethical-hacking-is-only-the-first-step-puennxgwp) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#ransomware](https://daily.dev/tags/ransomware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-mit-students-are-helping-to-prevent-cyberattacks-ijgupydg3) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How MIT students are helping to prevent cyberattacks","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-mit-students-are-helping-to-prevent-cyberattacks-ijgupydg3","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-mit-students-are-helping-to-prevent-cyberattacks-ijgupydg3"},"datePublished":"2026-07-13T19:22:40.952Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:08:47.789Z","description":"MIT's Cybersecurity Clinic, housed in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, trains students to conduct pro-bono cybersecurity vulnerability assessments...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7afa25d8d3eb8595f7e11eaec597f25c?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7afa25d8d3eb8595f7e11eaec597f25c?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"MIT News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MIT News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/881e20a40aa44b12ba4bd27f5c14289d","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-mit-students-are-helping-to-prevent-cyberattacks-ijgupydg3","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,cyber,ransomware","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MIT News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How MIT students are helping to prevent cyberattacks"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-mit-students-are-helping-to-prevent-cyberattacks-ijgupydg3#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What are the most common low-cost recommendations for improving a municipality's cybersecurity?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Key recommendations include inventorying all hardware and software on the network and tracking access, patching software and backing up data regularly, requiring multi-factor authentication and frequent password updates, training employees not to open unknown attachments, preparing an attack response plan with clear lines of authority and a stance on paying ransoms, and only using vendors with good cybersecurity hygiene. 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