Maryam Roshanaei, assistant professor of information technology and Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations at Penn State Abington, recently helped launch “We Are Cyber Ready” to improve cybersecurity among nonprofits in underserved Pennsylvania communities.

The project is supported by a Penn State Presidential Public Impact Research Award and is a response to a sharp rise in cyber-attacks targeting donor data and financial transactions among U.S. nonprofits. 71% reported at least one cybersecurity incident in the last three years, the university said.

“Our mission is to empower nonprofit organizations with the tools and knowledge to strengthen their cybersecurity posture,” Roshanaei said. “Through collaborative research, student engagement, and strategic partnerships, we’ve laid the groundwork for lasting impact across Pennsylvania’s nonprofit sector.”

From the project’s description:

The need for Cybersecurity competence has become a strategic area for all types of organizations, be it large or small, for profit or nonprofit. We use the term competence, but cyber hygiene, cyber competency, cyber resilience and many other terms are relevant to our research focus. Our focus is smaller nonprofit organizations, and particularly those with limited budgets and manpower to address their Cybersecurity issues and needs. Cyber-attacks, such as ransomware attacks, distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), and phishing attacks wreak havoc on the networks and systems necessary for supporting the populace via services provided by nonprofits. The problems associated with various types of hacks, be it from nefarious individuals/groups or careless internal personnel, are particularly difficult for small to medium nonprofits. We have partnered with the Pennsylvania Association for Non-profit Organizations (PANO) and Penn State receiving the Presidential Public Impact Research Award (PPIRA). We are looking forward to sharing both our lessons learned in the development and evolved methodology that can be used to ascertain key needs and weaknesses with respect to Cybersecurity for nonprofits in Pennsylvania.

“Working on this project has been a transformative experience — designing surveys, managing cross-campus teams, and building the WeAreCyberReady website taught me real-world skills that go far beyond the classroom,” Junior Diaz, an Abington cybersecurity major, said. “It’s incredibly rewarding to know our work is helping nonprofits become more secure.”

Members of the faculty team include Jennifer Breese, associate professor at Greater Allegheny; Brian Gardner, assistant professor at Schuylkill; Dusan Ramljack, assistant professor at Great Valley; and Michael Bartolacci, professor at the Berks campus.

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Photo: PSU