About Us

In 2015 and 2016 in partnership with the Steans Center for Service Learning, Professor Spears developed and taught the cybersecurity risk assessment course that laid the foundation for today's cybersecurity clinic. The course was not offered for several years. In 2024, DePaul provided seed funding for the cybersecurity clinic with an AGIF award. In 2025, the clinic launched. The Clinic is housed DePaul's School of Computing who offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in cybersecurity.

DePaul's accomplished cybersecurity program is an early collegial recipient, since 2005, of the NSA's CAE (National Security Agency-Certified Academic Excellence. It's Security Daemons student club has national prominence by winning the Midwest regionals, and competing as the final two remaining clubs at the annual CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) national championship.DePaul's cybersecurity program is also home to ACAL (Actionable Cybersecurity & Accessibility Lab), a leading academic research lab on misinformation and social engineering.

The experiential course on security risk assessment for a nonprofit organization is a cybersecurity course, offered to both undergraduate and graduate students. While the majority of the clinic's student participants are cybersecurity majors, students have also particpated from IS (information systems), HCI (human computer interface), and Driehaus College of Business majors.