UH offering free online courses in cybersecurity

The University of Hawaii is offering free online courses in cybersecurity, starting in Jan. 2025. 

The Cybersecurity Clinics will be available for 500 UH students over five years, providing mentoring and access to internships and career opportunities in cybersecurity, according to a news release.  

Google’s Cybersecurity Clinics Fund selected UH along with 14 other higher education institutions to receive $1 million each in grant funding to establish Cybersecurity Clinics. 

UH’s Cybersecurity Clinics will mostly be based at UH Maui College, but they will collaborate with other campuses. The clinics will also work with organizations in Hawaii, like the CIO Council and local employers, to train workers to secure digital infrastructure in Hawaii.  

“UH’s new cybersecurity clinics will give students an opportunity to learn cybersecurity and artificial intelligence skills in a hands-on manner, while helping to protect vulnerable organizations and critical infrastructure — such as local small businesses, hospitals, schools and energy grids — from cyber attacks,” said UH Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Garret Yoshimi in a statement. 

There are more than 450,000 open cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., with 4,000 of those in Hawaii, according to Cyber Seek. Demand for cyber professionals is expected to grow 32% by 2033. 

“The world is in a moment where emerging technologies, like AI, are creating both new opportunities and threats in the world of cybersecurity,” Heather Adkins, vice president of security engineering at Google, said in a statement. “It’s essential that we invest in growing a strong, diverse and widespread cybersecurity workforce to help protect everyone — from critical infrastructure to small businesses and schools.”

Google will also provide volunteer mentorship from the tech giant’s employees, Google Titan Security Keys (which are hardware passkeys that use two-factor authentication), and scholarships for the Google Career Certificate in Cybersecurity.

Last year, Google provided grant funding for 10 clinics, as part of its commitment to launch 25 Google-supported cyber clinics by 2025.