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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 Dashboard Program Overview

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

Work with mentors on focused cybersecurity projects that can be shared, demonstrated, and improved after the summer.

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.

Partners

Bay Area ecosystem

Growth Sector, Merritt College, UC Berkeley CLTC, and Bay Area organizations.

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.

The Zero to One Data Science to AI workshop is an example of the AI basics covered in the program. Security topics will follow with additional content on AI security, threat models, and secure AI workload practices.

Explore Zero to One Data Science to AI

Important Dates

Applicants should plan around these milestones for the Summer 2026 internship selection process.

Application Deadline

May 23, 2026

Submit the application form and resume by this date.

Phone Interviews Complete

June 1, 2026

Selected applicants should expect phone interviews to be completed by this date.

Acceptance Notifications

June 12, 2026

Applicants will be notified of acceptance decisions.

Program Starts

June 15, 2026

The 6 week project-based internship begins.

Waitlist Update

June 17, 2026

Waitlisted applicants will receive an update after the program starts.

Got Malware project graphic

Objective

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

  • Real-world applicability
  • Measurable performance improvements
  • Resume-quality deliverables
View Program Dashboard

Project Tracks

Interns can contribute through malware analysis tooling, community security assessment, SOC 2 audit readiness, hardware and IoT security research, honeypot deployment, threat research, or LLM-assisted pentesting.

These tracks are working options and may evolve as we receive more input from employer partners and mentors.

Project Track 1

Malware Copilot: AI-Assisted Reverse Engineering Lab

Build, improve, and benchmark Model Context Protocol tools for an AI malware analysis agent. Explore how tool design, model choice, and agent harness affect analysis quality, speed, cost, and reliability.

  • Build or improve MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools for malware analysis.
  • Integrate tools into agent frameworks, including CLI, TUI, or coding-agent workflows.
  • Analyze malware samples ranging from simple examples to advanced scenarios, including supply chain attacks.
  • Run benchmarks comparing models, tool designs, and MCP configurations.
View Full Track Details

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, with Rachel West of AllWomenCount as the project sponsor.

  • Review the organization's public-facing security posture and operational risks.
  • Create prioritized, plain-language recommendations that nonprofit staff can act on.
  • Deliver a professional assessment report suitable for stakeholders and future grant or partner conversations.
View Full Track Details

Project Track 3

Trust but Verify: SOC 2 Audit Readiness

Build SOC 2 Type II audit readiness at Interlaced, a managed security services firm, by supporting a live compliance program with real GRC deliverables.

  • Map security controls to SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria across Security, Availability, Confidentiality, Privacy, and Processing Integrity.
  • Remediate policy gaps across access control, change management, incident response, vendor management, and backup/recovery.
  • Collect and organize audit evidence including screenshots, logs, and export artifacts.
  • Contribute to the internal risk register, remediation tracker, and risk treatment documentation.
View Full Track Details

Project Track 4

Lens Check: IoT Camera Privacy Lab

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

  • Document how the device boots, connects to Wi-Fi, talks to cloud services, exposes local services, and handles video/audio data.
  • Capture lab-only network traffic during first boot, pairing, login, firmware update, live view, and cloud reconnect.
  • Analyze firmware with safe methods and tools such as Binwalk, Ghidra, strings, Firmwalker, EMBA, and OWASP firmware testing guidance.
  • Create consumer-focused privacy and security recommendations, a safe configuration guide, and a responsible disclosure template.
View Full Track Details

Project Track 5

Ghost Cloud: LLM Honeypots in AWS

Build and evaluate LLM-assisted honeypots in AWS using Beelzebub, with a focus on safe deployment, realistic attacker interaction, and useful security telemetry.

  • Run one four-student pod across SSH, web, and LLM safety evaluation workstreams.
  • Create isolated AWS deception environments without exposing real systems or secrets.
  • Collect commands, payloads, indicators, scanner behavior, credential attempts, and session timelines.
  • Deliver deployment guides, dashboards, safety guardrails, evaluation results, and defender-focused reports.
View Full Track Details

Project Track 6

Signal in the Noise: Threat Intel for Community Defenders

Research threat actors, cybercriminal communities, indicators, and defensive guidance with a focus on useful intelligence for small organizations and community defenders.

  • Build a structured threat actor or campaign profile with targets, motivations, tools, infrastructure, tactics, techniques, and known IOCs.
  • Use OSINT methods to study cybercrime communities, corporate digital hygiene risks, and behavioral patterns.
  • Map behaviors to MITRE ATT&CK and explain what each technique means for defenders.
  • Collect, validate, enrich, and organize public indicators from advisories and reports.
View Full Track Details

Project Track 7

Prompt to Pentest: LLM-Assisted Security Testing Lab

Use LLMs to support authorized vulnerability discovery, scanner output analysis, exploitability triage, and custom pentesting tool development in controlled lab environments.

  • Scan approved targets for common web, cloud, and service misconfiguration vulnerabilities.
  • Use LLMs to interpret tool output, generate safe test cases, and prioritize findings for manual verification.
  • Build small AI-assisted pentesting utilities for recon, payload generation, report drafting, and reproducible validation.
  • Document safety guardrails, limitations, false positives, and responsible testing boundaries.
View Full Track Details

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, and maybe most importantly, created countless opportunities to play an active role in others’ learning journeys.

Drew Gibson

Interview Phase

Applications are now closed while selected applicants move through interviews. Use the public dashboard to follow program details and updates.

Open Program Dashboard View Sample Credential