Meghan Holden

Journal & Courier

Purdue University is helping to fill the pool of professionals who can protect everyday technology against hackers and viruses.

The university will begin offering classes this summer for a new information security degree concentration, the school announced Thursday.

The degree concentration, offered through the Department of Computer Science, aims to arm students with the ability to implement security features on computer systems and networks and devices like mobile phones, airplanes, cars and point-of-sale machines, according to a Purdue news release.

"They would learn how to write software that would defend a system against phishing emails or viruses that try to probe a computer," the release said.

The one-year program will allow anyone with computing or programming backgrounds -- professionals with programming experience, college graduates with computer science minors or recent undergraduates with computing majors -- to earn a master's in computer science.

The first class of students will start in the June summer session with a gateway course sequence that will serve as a refresher.