Free Cybersecurity Clinic for Hawaii Small Businesses

A free online cybersecurity clinic series for Hawaii's small businesses and sole proprietors begins on September 16, 2026. The University of Hawaii Maui College is hosting the three-session Zoom series, which is funded by a $1 million grant from Google's Cybersecurity Clinics Fund.

David Stevens, associate professor of IT/Cybersecurity at Kapiʻolani Community College and session lead for the UH Cybersecurity Clinic, explained the need. "Vulnerability scanners, SIEM platforms and asset management suites are all priced for organizations with 10 times a small business's headcount," he said. The clinic aims to provide practical alternatives.

Session Details and Registration

The first session, titled "The One-Person Security Department: Building Your Own Tools for HawaiʻiIT on No Budget," runs from noon to 1 p.m. On Thursday, September 16. Attendance is free but requires prior registration through a dedicated Zoom webinar link. The clinic is open to all sole proprietors and registered businesses operating in Hawaii.

Subsequent sessions in the series will continue the focus on actionable, low-cost cybersecurity strategies for small operations. The University of Hawaii Cybersecurity Clinics program is one of 15 new clinics launching at higher education institutions across the United States through a collaboration between Google and the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics.

Practical Skills for Resource-Constrained IT

The initial session will cover practical automation techniques tailored for small and resource-limited IT setups. Specific topics include inventorying devices on a network, parsing system logs without expensive SIEM software, auditing configurations at scale, and building simple homemade testing tools to proactively probe systems for weaknesses.

Stevens highlighted the role of modern AI tools in making this possible for non-developers. "AI assistants have collapsed the barrier to entry here, so you no longer need to be a developer to get useful tooling running," he stated. He also cautioned that the session would provide an honest assessment of AI limitations, teaching verification habits to prevent a generated script from causing a security incident.

Program Funding and Scope

The three-session series is part of the broader University of Hawaiʻi Cybersecurity Clinics initiative established with the $1 million in grant funding and support from Google. This wraparound support enables the university to offer these specialized services to the local small business community at no cost.

The program represents a direct investment in strengthening the digital defenses of Hawaii's small business sector, which often lacks the resources for enterprise-grade security solutions. The clinic's approach focuses on building in-house capabilities using freely available tools and modern techniques.