With the rise of different social media applications and websites’ popularity, there has been a call for an increase in security for social media sites.

Troy University will be offering a professional development online course on social media security and ways to better identify social media security risk.

Lee Vardaman, assistant provost for academic support for Troy University, said the class was a way to get hands-on experience for social media security.

“One year of security work is recommended but not required to attend the training,” Vardaman said. “The course starts Sept. 8 and we’re asking people to sign up as soon as possible. The course is online, but will include a ton of stuff such as lectures and hands-on materials.”

Scott Wells, who helped work on and build the certification used in the course, Vardaman said, will teach the six-week course. The course will focus not on how to protect pictures or other aspects of social media, but instead personal information, Vardaman said.

“Invaders are not looking to steal your pictures most times,” Vardaman said. “Where they’re really going to benefit is when a hacker gets in and starts stealing personal information, such as credit card numbers, addresses, birthdays. Any personal information they can use to steal your identity.”

The goal for the course is for students to be able to pass the compTIA certification course, an IT certification developed to be company neutral instead of specific for one particular industry. Vardaman said the course was pass guaranteed for the students taking part in it.

“At the end of the course, students will need to take the exam to be certified,” Vardaman said. “First, they have to complete the course in the six week. The first exam must be attempted within 10 weeks of the course. If they take the exam and don’t pass we will cover the cost for them to take the course again and review everything before retaking the exam.”

Vardaman said this course should be the first of many for the university.

“We are actively growing this part of offerings, and we will be offering more certifications online,” Vardaman said.

Vardaman said the next course the university hoped to have was a Security+ course, although he is unsure of when the course would be available.

“We don’t have a timeline yet, but that’s the next one in the works.”

The course will begin Monday, Sept. 8, but Vardaman said the course was still accepting applicants.