The U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, plans to offer a new major beginning this fall.
The new major in cyber systems is the first new academic program at the school since the addition of mechanical engineering as a major in 1993.
The school is opening a cyber lab for the multidisciplinary program with dedicated servers, a new laboratory and a specially designed classroom to support the program.
Dr. Kurt Colella, the academy's dean of academics, says the field incorporates elements of policy, law, ethics, operating systems, software design and intelligence.
Cyber systems majors will conduct research in such areas as reverse engineering, malware analysis, network attack and defense, and industrial control systems.
Capt. Lee Petty, chief of the Coast Guard's Office of Cyberspace Forces in Washington, says the new program reflects how the service has begun to conduct operations in cyberspace just as it does at sea and by air.