Over 5 000 students have enrolled in a Hacking Countermeasures short course to be run by Charles Sturt University (CSU) and industry partner IT Masters. 

The free online short course runs over five weeks and will include a detailed session on the recently discovered online security vulnerability known as the 'Heartbleed' bug.

The course will be delivered by Mr Erdal OzaIf, who has received numerous awards in cyber security and presented at cyber security conferences worldwide. 

"If you enrol for this course, strap on your seat belt because Erdal's Lectures are pretty full on," said IT Masters CEO, Mr Martin Hale.    

"And as lectures are recorded you can review what you missed live. You will not be bored because Erdal's enthusiasm is infectious and the information he presents is the latest on best practice in cyber security," said Mr Hale.

The short course aims to provide students with a taste of postgraduate study via distance education with CSU.  "The Hacking Countermeasures short course covers sections of our subject ITE516: Hacking Countermeasures, a subject in the Master in Information Systems Security degree at Charles Sturt University. The short course mirrors the format of the subject in that it includes weekly lectures, homework and even a final exam," Mr Hale said. 

The Masters course has a number of subjects designed to help students prepare for the world's most popular cyber security certifications including CISSP and Certified Ethical Hacker.   

"This mixture of the latest in industry best practice and rigor in academic assessment is one reason over 1 000 IT professionals study with Charles Sturt University," Mr Hale said.