IT Security: Secure Programming Courses

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Software development processes, perhaps surprisingly, conceal many cyber-security pitfalls. New courses for programmers aim to solve these problems

Information security is a constantly expanding market. It touches almost every aspect of modern life – from surfing the internet to satellite communications, from power grids to civil or military aviation. Software development is an area that appears to go hand in hand with information security; experts, however, note many security failures that keep appearing over and over again: Flawed code that can cause an organization significant damage.

One of the leading causes of these security failures is the nature of the development process in most organizations. The main problem with developing products and services is that most companies conduct development in-house, all based on identical methodologies and technologies. This almost invariably leads to the formation of information security vulnerabilities, which are detected only in the more advanced stages of development and also affect related developments. Code errors can cause delays, damage workflow and result in significant financial losses. Errors, when detected in late development stages, can be irreversible, forcing the organization to start over.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

There’s no need to explain the importance of information security, with writing code being an integral part of it. One possible solution is professional courses focusing on writing secure code, classes aimed at programmers and already implemented by several organizations. These classes combine integral methodologies that are implemented during the earliest development stages. In this type of classes, such as the ones given by the Ovnat information security company in Israel, programmers study writing code that is integrally designed to be compatible with information security.