Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection Awarded Gula Tech Foundation Prize

The Gula Tech Foundation selected Cleveland State University's Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection as the third-place winner in its $1 million June 2022 grant competition for organizations that work to “Incorporate Cyber Expertise in Corporate Governance.” The Foundation announced the awards at the RSA Conference, one of the world's largest cybersecurity events, on June 7. The Center was selected for its long track record in providing innovative, cross-disciplinary education and public outreach and its extensive partnerships with industry groups like the Northeast Ohio CyberConsortium, the Center for Internet Security and CyberOhio.

Center Director and Professor of Law Brian Ray expressed thanks to Ron and Cindy Gula and the Foundation. "When we founded this Center seven years ago, there were very few technical cybersecurity programs that incorporated law and policy, except as an afterthought, and there were at most one or two non-technical programs that provided any technical expertise," said Professor Ray. “This generous gift from the Gula Tech Foundation will support our long-standing commitment to educating and training legal and business leaders to understand the critical cybersecurity risks facing organizations and technical security professionals to communicate cyber risk to organizational leaders."

Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Dean Lee Fisher noted that "this is one of several recent awards to the Center for work on issues ranging from biometric privacy to smart cities and pandemic response technologies. We're one of only a handful of law programs in the country where students have the opportunity to gain experience working directly on these cutting-edge issues."