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When Steven Schiavone ’26 cracked his dad’s laptop password in seventh grade, he wasn’t trying to launch a cybersecurity career—he just wanted to play a video game. “Anytime I wanted to download a new game, I needed his permission because I didn’t have administrator access,” he says. With help from his best friend, he cracked the password and got in.

“I proudly showed my dad—who happened to be a Senior Vice President of Global Technology at Bank of America.”

This pride was the start of Steven’s fervent passion for cybersecurity. He’s three years into his BS in Information Technology, a CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service scholarship recipient, the incoming president of the Cybersecurity Club, and a student manager in the Digital Forensics Lab at �鶹ֱ��’s New York City Campus.

Companies and individuals don’t have a choice about cybersecurity anymore.

Steven takes cybersecurity seriously because, according to him, it affects us all. “It's 2025. Companies and individuals don’t have a choice about cybersecurity anymore,” he says. In a world where our most sensitive information—banking details, medical histories, even genetic data—is stored online, cybersecurity affects everyone. “Whether or not you have ever touched a keyboard, the security of your data affects your livelihood.”

Steven’s dedication to cybersecurity is rooted in service—especially to his fellow cybersecurity peers. As the team captain for the Cybersecurity Club’s competitive Collegiate Cyber Defense Team, he created a 120-page contingency guide to help his teammates prepare for the competition against professional hackers for the U.S. government. But that dedication goes beyond school, as he prepares to bring that mindset to government service. Recipients of the CyberCorps® scholarship are expected to work for a federal, state, or local government for a time equal to their amount of aid. “This opportunity recognizes a dream of mine,” says Steven. “I want to keep these critical systems secure. I want to keep soldiers secure. I want to protect our nation’s infrastructure from hackers that are taking down hospitals and gas pipelines.”

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While his cybersecurity work is focused on defending the systems of tomorrow, Steven also works to preserve the past. Steven volunteers close to home at in Wall, New Jersey, where he maintains and demos one of the first ever digital computers fielded by the Navy. “I run a 1969 naval firing computer called the UNIVAC 1219,” he explains. “These half-ton gray behemoths of computing were installed on United States naval ships for managing their Terrier, Talos, and Tartar missile systems.”

Even his decision to come to �鶹ֱ�� is at least partially rooted in an appreciation of the past. Not only is his mother a �鶹ֱ�� alumna of the Class of ’96, but both of his parents worked in New York’s Financial District, and his father worked in the World Financial Center during the ’90s and early 2000s. “Three of my four grandparents came through Ellis Island, and all put down roots here,” he says. “We're in the capital of the world. Culturally, diplomatically, financially, you name it. Everything happens here.”

But beyond an amazing location, �鶹ֱ�� also offered the expertise he was seeking. “I talked to people in the Cybersecurity Club and they all seemed very knowledgeable and qualified.” The faculty also serve as a great inspiration to him. “I have these professors who do incredibly meaningful work…Professor Joe Acampora is probably one of the smartest minds in cybersecurity, and �鶹ֱ�� is so lucky to have him,” he says. “And Dr. Darren Hayes, my direct supervisor in the Digital Forensics Lab and Director of Cybersecurity, is incredibly intelligent and well networked.”

I have these professors who do incredibly meaningful work.

From cracking his dad’s password at age twelve and running a Cold War naval computer, to leading his teams to victory in cybersecurity competitions, Steven Schiavone’s passion is grounded in history and powered by his sense of duty. Our digital future is in safe hands.

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