Mark Grabowski, professor and chair of Adelphi University's Communications Department, has published a new edition of his textbook, Cyber Law and Ethics: Regulation of the Connected World (2nd ed.), with Routledge.

The expanded edition — fully rewritten from the ground up — examines the rapidly evolving legal and ethical challenges shaping today’s digital landscape, including artificial intelligence, social media, privacy, cybercrime, cryptocurrency, deepfakes, surveillance, and misinformation. It also explores the growing influence of algorithms, platform power, and digital economies on everyday life.

At a time when digital technologies increasingly shape how people communicate, access information, and participate in society, understanding the rules that govern them has never been more important.

Designed by a journalist-turned-lawyer-turned-academic, the 354-page book makes complex legal and ethical issues accessible without requiring a legal background. It is intended for college and non-law graduate students and includes instructor resources to support teaching and classroom engagement.

Mark Grabowski was featured in a Newsday story on Adelphi University's decision to issue $55 million in new bonds for campus upgrades. The article, which revealed that the debt load prompted S&P Global to downgrade Adelphi's credit rating, quoted Grabowski questioning whether the investment made strategic sense given demographic challenges facing higher education.

"Our facilities need updating — classrooms and labs are outdated," said the Adelphi professor, "but the strategic question is whether taking on tens of millions in debt makes sense given the well-documented demographic realities facing higher education in 2026 and beyond."

The story highlighted declining enrollment at Adelphi and the university's expansion into Manhattan as it navigates financial pressures.

Mark Grabowski joined fellow Adelphi faculty in offering predictions for 2026 in a roundup published on the university's website. The post included a range of predictions covering the economy, healthcare, education, sports and more.

Here's what Mark, who is chair of the Communications Dept., said:

Institutions shaping knowledge and trust — universities and the media — faced a harsh reckoning in 2025. In 2026, we’ll see which ones actually learned from it.

The crisis was never about politics or technology. It was about purpose.

Universities forgot they exist to prepare minds for uncertainty, not protect them from it. The media forgot their job is to help citizens think, not dictate what to think. Both demanded deference to authority they no longer monopolize.

2026 forces a choice: In a world of infinite information, contested expertise and AI-enabled execution, what justifies their existence?

Survivors will admit the old bargain is broken and build value around judgment, resilience and earned trust.

Laggards will cling to “trust us because we’re the experts” long after the public demands “show us why.” Most students sense this disconnect: going into debt to learn from professors who secured tenure in a system that no longer exists, preparing for careers those same professors couldn’t get today.

External forces — AI disruption, U.S.–China fragmentation, Europe’s regulatory maximalism, intensifying political polarization — provide context, not cause.

The real question: Can institutions designed for scarcity still justify existence in an age of abundance? Most won’t even ask honestly. That’s why they’ll fail.

Prof. Mark Grabowski published an op-ed in National Review arguing that Europe’s reputation for press freedom is increasingly detached from reality.

In the Dec. 15 op-ed, titled “In Europe, Freedom of the Press Is an Illusion,” Grabowski responds to European officials who cited the World Press Freedom Index after the EU fined Elon Musk’s platform X, arguing that the ranking “confuses censorship with protection” by rewarding aggressive speech regulation and penalizing countries whose governments lack the power to police lawful expression.

He contends that the index measures regulatory conformity rather than genuine press freedom, masking a system in which fines, vague “harm” standards, and criminal speech laws quietly chill journalism and public debate. As Grabowski concludes, real press freedom is defined not by how elegantly governments manage information, but by how willing they are to leave speech alone — even when it is messy, wrong, or unpopular.

Professor Mark Grabowski was featured in a CNBC story examining how cryptocurrency is complicating modern divorce cases. With millennials entering peak divorce years and many households holding digital assets, courts are increasingly struggling to determine ownership, disclosure, and division of crypto.

In the article, Grabowski explained why crypto creates new challenges for lawyers and judges, noting that digital assets can be hidden or moved instantly: “In divorce cases, crypto is creating the same headaches we’ve long seen with offshore accounts, except now the assets can be moved instantly and invisibly.”

He emphasized that crypto ownership isn’t tied to a name on an account but to whoever controls the private keys: “If one spouse controls the wallet, they effectively control the assets.”

Grabowski, who teaches courses on cryptocurrency and cyber law, also warned that the lack of standardized reporting makes it easier for a spouse to underreport holdings: “Without that transparency and given the lack of reporting standards, it’s easy for one spouse to hide or underreport holdings. Courts are still catching up.”

The full story — “Married millennials, here comes the crypto divorce cliff” — explores how digital assets are reshaping family law, forensic investigations, and financial disclosure.

Professor Mark Grabowski headlined two major cryptocurrency events at Adelphi University during the Fall 2025 semester, highlighting the institution’s expanding focus on blockchain.

On October 24, 2025, Grabowski led a Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Discussion at Adelphi’s Innovation Center alongside Jeff Rundlet, head of Accounting Strategy at Cryptio. Together, they walked attendees through the fundamentals of Bitcoin, stablecoins, and blockchain, explaining how decentralized networks and digital scarcity create real value. The discussion emphasized that cryptocurrency represents a developing financial infrastructure, not just speculation.

Two weeks later, on November 6, 2025, Grabowski delivered the opening remarks at The Blockchain Summit and Social, co-hosted by Adelphi’s Robert B. Willumstad School of Business and the Long Island Capital Alliance (LICA). He framed the conversation by acknowledging the polarized views surrounding crypto: “When people hear ‘blockchain,’ they usually fall into two camps: some think it’s the future of finance; others think it’s a scam run by teenagers in hoodies. But the truth… is far more interesting.”

He pointed to the data behind blockchain’s resilience: “Over the past 15 years, Bitcoin has been the best-performing financial asset in the world — better than gold, better than the S&P 500, and yes, even better than NVIDIA stock.”

Grabowski also highlighted Adelphi’s early commitment: “Back in 2018, when most people still thought ‘crypto’ was short for ‘cryptic,’ I launched Long Island’s first university course on Bitcoin and Blockchain.”

Throughout his remarks, he emphasized blockchain’s broader significance beyond price charts: “Blockchain isn’t just about technology — it’s about trust, transparency, and financial inclusion.” He noted how quickly the industry is moving, from Bitcoin ETFs to major institutions entering the space, underscoring that what began as a niche experiment is now influencing Wall Street and Washington alike.

He concluded by emphasizing that blockchain’s trajectory is accelerating, with regulatory shifts, institutional adoption, and new technical breakthroughs converging rapidly. Events like the summit, he noted, are essential for helping students, professionals and the broader community understand how these changes will reshape finance, law and technology in the years ahead.

Together, these two back-to-back events demonstrated Adelphi’s growing leadership in blockchain education — and highlighted Grabowski’s continued role in guiding the university’s conversations about the future of digital finance.

Professor Mark Grabowski was quoted in a story published by Cybernews, analyzing Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order on censorship.

The Jan. 27, 2025 article — titled “Trump’s order on censorship: victory for free speech or assault on reality?” — draws on Grabowski’s cyber law expertise to question whether the administration’s push to “end government censorship” might instead undermine democratic discourse.

As Grabowski told Cybernews, the involvement of government in moderating speech “opens the door to a dangerous slippery slope.” He warned that what begins as an effort to curb misinformation could easily expand into suppressing dissenting viewpoints, critical journalism, or unpopular political opinions — a serious blow to free speech and public discourse.

His comments underscore ongoing concerns that new laws and regulations, even those framed as protecting free speech, may carry unintended consequences for media freedom, transparency, and democratic accountability.

Mark Grabowski was quoted in Communications: Journalism Education Today on the issue of book bans.

Book bans have been a hot and controversial topic in the United States lately, with many schools and libraries banning certain books.

"Book bans generally are antithetical to the First Amendment and the fundamental principles of free speech and academic inquiry," said Grabowski, a professor who specializes in free speech, media law and ethics. "I’m concerned by the recent surge of book bans in the United States that appear to be motivated by political considerations. Additionally, I suspect that certain librarians might be covertly engaging in what could be described as "shadow bans." Although these books may not be formally banned, they are deliberately excluded from acquisition and display."

The article, "Banning books another form of censorship," was published in the magazine's Fall 2023 edition.

Mark Grabowski was invited to present his research on The Philippines' regulations of cryptocurrency exchanges at the 2023 Blockchain and Internet of Things Conference (BIOTC 2023).

The fifth annual conference is being held in Osaka, Japan. Grabowski will share his findings he made as a Fulbright Scholar in Philippines, in which he research what other countries could learn from the government's regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges.

​The recent, infamous collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's popular FTX exchange has created a renewed push for stricter cryptocurrency regulations in the United States and elsewhere. Grabowski teaches cyber law at Adelphi University and is the author of Cryptocurrencies: A Primer on Digital Money.

Mark Grabowski discussed the potential uses and benefits of blockchain technology in real estate transactions in a story published in Newsday.

The story focused on Ranieri Solutions, a startup creating and applying blockchain technology in the real estate and mortgage markets.

Grabowski, who teaches cyber law at Adelphi University and is the author of Cryptocurrencies: A Primer on Digital Money, said that while some could be wary of blockchain technology because of its connection to cryptocurrency, it could be useful in streamlining real estate transactions. 

"It could cut out the middleman, processing fees and time," he said.