By: Kylie McGovern 

On March 31, La Salle University’s Provost announced a new Email Phishing major will be coming to the University in Fall 2021. The new Email Phishing major will train students to use technology to commit fraud and steal money via email, text and instant messaging. This new course of study is available to all undergraduate students. Many computer science majors are expected to also pursue the new Email Phishing major. Business students may also find this new academic pursuit to be beneficial. 

Classes will be offered in distinct areas as well as a few introductory courses. Introduction to Phishing will be a prerequisite to all other Email Phishing classes. This introduction class is being offered in the Fall 2021 semester at two different times. Another class will be The History of Email Phishing. Some of the more advanced courses will be Link Manipulation, Filter Evasion and Social Engineering. Link Manipulation will teach students the technology behind creating false links to deceive clients. Link manipulation students will create and send a manipulated link to the entire La Salle community as their final project of the class. Filter evasion will teach students how to use images rather than text in email phishing pursuits to prevent phishing filters from catching their emails. Like in the Link Manipulating class, students will create and send a phishing email using an image rather than text. In social engineering classes students will learn how to psychologically manipulate their targets into performing actions like clicking a link, opening an attachment or sharing confidential information. 

Email Phishing is an essential, innovative and lucrative field. La Salle students having access to a major like this creates the opportunity to join the workforce quickly after graduation. Phishing is a wide field with lots of opportunity, especially during a pandemic when more and more college-educated people are working from home. Phishing provides additional opportunity in a growing field. This new major also benefits La Salle because few institutions are currently offering email phishing studies, so prospective students may be enticed by the new and innovative major.