Leslie Corbo, D.Sc.

Leslie Corbo is the director of the Undergraduate Cybersecurity Programs and an associate professor of cybersecurity. Her area of expertise is cybersecurity and behavior analysis of human interaction with computer systems. Prior to joining Utica University, she was a Sr. Information Security Program Manager for Cofense, Inc. and the Director of Training for Dragos, Inc. Corbo has also supported Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security efforts, working as a Cybersecurity Analyst and Information Systems Security Manager. She is believed to be the only cybersecurity professor published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and was selected as the first recipient of the Karl Zimpel Endowed Professorship in Cybersecurity. Corbo has provided commentary for various local media outlets including WKTV News Channel 2, Spectrum News, WUTQ’s Talk of the Town morning radio show, and WUTR Eyewitness News.

Dr. Corbo has worked as a Sr. Information Security Program Manager at Cofense (f/k/a PhishMe). At Cofense, she worked with Fortune 500 companies educating employees in information security practices consulting, planning, simulated execution, and analysis. Additionally, she worked with renowned universities, including Harvard University and the London School of Economics, collecting data, designing, and conducting studies involving employee behavior toward phishing emails.

Before joining PhishMe, she worked as a cybersecurity analyst and Information System Security Manager on DoD and DHS Science & Technology efforts, managing information systems while developing, implementing, and enforcing information security policies and procedures. As an IT Security Analyst, she conducted analysis and incident response.

Corbo’s education includes a D.Sc. in Cybersecurity from Capitol Technology University, an M.S. in Cybersecurity from Utica University, and a B.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance with a concentration in Cybercrime Investigation and Forensics. She also holds an A.A.S. degree in Web Development.

Corbo’s research areas include phishing emails, behavior analysis, and fraud. Dr. Corbo’s dissertation study involved case studies in the decision-making processing methods utilized by undergraduate students when interacting with malicious emails.

Corbo has presented extensively on workplace behavior “between employee and keyboard,” focusing predominantly on spear phishing emails. She is believed to be the only cybersecurity professor that has ever been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That paper was named a “best paper” globally by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) for 2019.

In August 2022, Dr. Corbo became the first recipient of the Karl Zimpel ’75 Endowed Professorship in Cybersecurity. Corbo is a member of Women in Cybersecurity, ISACA, and the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education. She works with the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education on their academic working group that collaborates with academia, industry, and government. A champion for women in cybersecurity, she has vowed not to retire until her classes are made up of an equal number of male and female students.