This course covers section three of CSSLP Domain Four: Secure Coding Operations. You'll learn about code analysis, code reviews, secure build environments, anti-tampering techniques, and version management.
Learning Objectives
- Learn how to analyze code and review it
- Understand how to ensure that build environments are secure
- Understand the importance of anti-tampering techniques and version control when building software
Intended Audience
This course is intended for anyone looking to develop secure software as well as those studying for the CSSLP certification.
Prerequisites
Any experience relating to information security would be advantageous, but not essential. All topics discussed are thoroughly explained and presented in a way allowing the information to be absorbed by everyone, regardless of experience within the security field.
Accompanying the automated tools and the manual reviews, we do code or peer review. And while these automated methods are, to a degree, better and faster in many ways, a manual joint review by team members is needed to cover aspects that an automated review may not be able to. Now, humans build it today and humans will likely need to build updates and fixes to it tomorrow, as with all software ever built. Their ability to read and understand the code, of course, will then be required so that they can do so.
Now, the automated tools are programmed to examine based on objective rulesets and configuration specifics, as we've said. So, this is a very quantitative type of an examination. The humans on the other hand will look at the code for unnecessary complexity, verbosity, alternative pathways for recovery, and other more subjective characteristics, providing a more qualitative look. Now, a secondary benefit to this process will be the training and maturation of junior team members. And by integrating it all, we get better team integration and depth of skill and understanding. It also provides an integrated form of redundancy amongst the staff; more members enabled for broader support as backups or backfill for other members.
Mr. Leo has been in Information System for 38 years, and an Information Security professional for over 36 years. He has worked internationally as a Systems Analyst/Engineer, and as a Security and Privacy Consultant. His past employers include IBM, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Rockwell International. A NASA contractor for 22 years, from 1998 to 2002 he was Director of Security Engineering and Chief Security Architect for Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center. From 2002 to 2006 Mr. Leo was the Director of Information Systems, and Chief Information Security Officer for the Managed Care Division of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.
Upon attaining his CISSP license in 1997, Mr. Leo joined ISC2 (a professional role) as Chairman of the Curriculum Development Committee, and served in this role until 2004. During this time, he formulated and directed the effort that produced what became and remains the standard curriculum used to train CISSP candidates worldwide. He has maintained his professional standards as a professional educator and has since trained and certified nearly 8500 CISSP candidates since 1998, and nearly 2500 in HIPAA compliance certification since 2004. Mr. leo is an ISC2 Certified Instructor.