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Our Story
File · CRC/002 · Origin
§ 01 · Our story
In early 2024, a small group of Maryland cyber practitioners gathered to talk about a problem that seemed “medical” in nature. Organizations needed a specialist, but they couldn’t afford one, and people who wanted to learn the cyber trade had no clinic to practice at. So, we built what was missing: The Cyber Ready Clinic.
This clinic was different: we ran intake with 10 nonprofits, helped to diagnose their cyber readiness and business risk, wrote up a “Digital Wellness Plan,” all while introducing new cyber workforce entrants to CEOs and executive leaders around a boardroom table. The result? Real community impact for substantially lower fees than a real medical visit.
CRC was founded by Ron and Cyndi Gula, co-founders of Tenable. The clinic has served more than 60 nonprofits across two states (Maryland & Texas) and placed over 30 digitally badged practitioners. In March 2026, the State of Maryland backed our model with a $500,000 Cyber and AI Clinic Grant, in partnership with three local community colleges, and we launched a pilot at Angelo State University in West Texas, one of the first colleges to pioneer the Regional Security Operation Center (SOC). CRC plans to expand to 200+ practitioners by EOY 2028.
File · CRC/002 · Value
§ 02 · Value
A nonprofit holds exactly what an attacker wants and defends it with the least: donor records, client files describing people at their most vulnerable, payroll, and the grant money the whole mission runs on. One engagement changes that. The same engagement is where a practitioner learns the trade.
For the organization
An engagement a nonprofit could not otherwise buy, delivered by people whose day job is defending far larger targets.
For the Cyber Workforce
The part of the job no course teaches: sitting across from an executive who has to decide something, and being the one who explains the risk.
File · CRC/002 · Return
§ 03 · Return on investment
$330K
60+ cyber assessments
Sixty assessments at $5,500 each
$300K
100 practitioners trained
One hundred at $3,000 each
$120K
1,200+ program staff hours
Clinic staff building partnerships
$72K
Cyber technical support
Deployed to qualifying nonprofits
And what the numbers miss
An improved skilled workforce
Practitioners who trained on real engagements tend to stay in the region and take local jobs.
Clinical education in colleges
The teaching-hospital model, applied to cyber: coursework with a working clinic attached to it.
A stronger nonprofit community
Every organization the clinic treats is one less soft target holding a community's donor and client data.
More business for local MSPs
Assessments surface real remediation work, and those referrals go to providers in the same community.
File · CRC/002 · Grant
§ 04 · March 2026 · Maryland state grant
In March 2026, CRC was selected as a recipient of a $500,000 Cyber and AI Clinic Grant from the Maryland Department of Labor, in collaboration with Howard, Frederick, and Carroll Community Colleges. The grant expands the Ready5 Practitioner internship program from 30 current interns to more than 200 as the program scales.
Read the full press releaseFile · CRC/002 · Results
§ 05 · Results
Over the past 18 months, working with nonprofits, managed service providers, colleges and product partners across our service areas.
65
Nonprofits served
20
MSPs engaged
4
MSPs badged
70+
Practitioners trained and counting
4
Colleges engaged
1
Grant won
160
Jobs identified
190
Remediations identified
20
Product partners
