National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: More than a phishing expedition
In this most festive of annual occasions for cybersecurity professionals, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a time many companies utilize to reflect on, and appraise, the general security awareness heartbeat across the organization. And with 62% of business experiencing a phishing or social engineering attack in 2018 alone, the importance of ensuring every individual in the business -- whether in a security role or not -- has adequate cybersecurity awareness training cannot be overstated.
As an increasingly global event, the month represents a catch-all for discussing best practices, and the initiatives are deliberately surface-level. However, even organizations with robust security programs and in-house specialists can use this time to assess the more technical teams for what they need to become more security-aware in the context of their role.
For AppSec specialists, development team leads, and the more security-savvy members of the engineering cohort, it might feel a bit like being taught how to suck eggs, but it is these champions within the business that can push security and safety to new heights, company-wide.
How to elevate your Cybersecurity Awareness Month
This is a golden opportunity for the security team to extend something of an olive branch to the development team, perhaps in the form of inter-team activities and programs that can help developers feel more positive about security in the context of their work.
Some kick-off ideas include:
- Help developers get the support they need to learn about secure coding. Not having the right tools for the job is a great way to feel justified in slam-dunking a task into the Too Hard Basket. If developers don't have the right training and tools to see security as a priority in the coding process, then it's no wonder so many teams are ill-equipped to keep common vulnerabilities out of their code.
Use this month to understand what is missing in the development tech stack, which managers can work together to improve communication and increase security visibility, and who can continue advocating for and championing security going forward. - Host a "Lunch and Learn'event. The cybersecurity and development communities are, in general, brimming with incredibly generous people who are only too happy to share their expertise. Reach out to conference speakers, tech peers in other companies, or even local OWASP chapters, and see who might be able to come in and chat with the team, or record a webinar with someone in the organization. It's a relatively quick win, and it can be a huge benefit for up-and-coming developers to see different security career pathways in front of them.
- Gather for some friendly competition. Learning about security is a lot more fun when you do something a little different and special. Secure coding tournaments are a great way to get developers testing their secure coding skills, and competing with their peers in a gamified environment. Get a fancy dress theme happening, and be creative with the teams (how about developers vs. their managers?). Order some pizza, drinks, get some energetic music pumping, and it can be an event to remember for the whole organization.
Giving back to the community: Download your free Secure Code Bootcamp app
I'm a developer myself, and it has always been the case that we search for what we can share and use for free. It's a point of pride to make some freeware that might help others, and this month is a good time to reflect on our roots and look at what we can provide to the community.
To that end, we're pleased to announce our new, free app, Secure Code Bootcamp. This is a pocket secure coding companion for coders who want to challenge themselves, progressively boosting their security awareness anywhere, anytime.
Download the app for iOS and Android now, and learn how to locate and identify OWASP vulnerabilities in Node.JS, Python:Django, Java:Spring, C# .NET: MVC:
Every organization can utilize Cybersecurity Awareness Month to refresh their security awareness, and this year, were also launching a new, free app for the coding community!
Matias Madou, Ph.D. is a security expert, researcher, and CTO and co-founder of Secure Code Warrior. Matias obtained his Ph.D. in Application Security from Ghent University, focusing on static analysis solutions. He later joined Fortify in the US, where he realized that it was insufficient to solely detect code problems without aiding developers in writing secure code. This inspired him to develop products that assist developers, alleviate the burden of security, and exceed customers' expectations. When he is not at his desk as part of Team Awesome, he enjoys being on stage presenting at conferences including RSA Conference, BlackHat and DefCon.
Secure Code Warrior is here for your organization to help you secure code across the entire software development lifecycle and create a culture in which cybersecurity is top of mind. Whether you’re an AppSec Manager, Developer, CISO, or anyone involved in security, we can help your organization reduce risks associated with insecure code.
Book a demo
Matias Madou, Ph.D. is a security expert, researcher, and CTO and co-founder of Secure Code Warrior. Matias obtained his Ph.D. in Application Security from Ghent University, focusing on static analysis solutions. He later joined Fortify in the US, where he realized that it was insufficient to solely detect code problems without aiding developers in writing secure code. This inspired him to develop products that assist developers, alleviate the burden of security, and exceed customers' expectations. When he is not at his desk as part of Team Awesome, he enjoys being on stage presenting at conferences including RSA Conference, BlackHat and DefCon.
Matias is a researcher and developer with more than 15 years of hands-on software security experience. He has developed solutions for companies such as Fortify Software and his own company Sensei Security. Over his career, Matias has led multiple application security research projects which have led to commercial products and boasts over 10 patents under his belt. When he is away from his desk, Matias has served as an instructor for advanced application security training courses and regularly speaks at global conferences including RSA Conference, Black Hat, DefCon, BSIMM, OWASP AppSec and BruCon.
Matias holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Ghent University, where he studied application security through program obfuscation to hide the inner workings of an application.
In this most festive of annual occasions for cybersecurity professionals, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a time many companies utilize to reflect on, and appraise, the general security awareness heartbeat across the organization. And with 62% of business experiencing a phishing or social engineering attack in 2018 alone, the importance of ensuring every individual in the business -- whether in a security role or not -- has adequate cybersecurity awareness training cannot be overstated.
As an increasingly global event, the month represents a catch-all for discussing best practices, and the initiatives are deliberately surface-level. However, even organizations with robust security programs and in-house specialists can use this time to assess the more technical teams for what they need to become more security-aware in the context of their role.
For AppSec specialists, development team leads, and the more security-savvy members of the engineering cohort, it might feel a bit like being taught how to suck eggs, but it is these champions within the business that can push security and safety to new heights, company-wide.
How to elevate your Cybersecurity Awareness Month
This is a golden opportunity for the security team to extend something of an olive branch to the development team, perhaps in the form of inter-team activities and programs that can help developers feel more positive about security in the context of their work.
Some kick-off ideas include:
- Help developers get the support they need to learn about secure coding. Not having the right tools for the job is a great way to feel justified in slam-dunking a task into the Too Hard Basket. If developers don't have the right training and tools to see security as a priority in the coding process, then it's no wonder so many teams are ill-equipped to keep common vulnerabilities out of their code.
Use this month to understand what is missing in the development tech stack, which managers can work together to improve communication and increase security visibility, and who can continue advocating for and championing security going forward. - Host a "Lunch and Learn'event. The cybersecurity and development communities are, in general, brimming with incredibly generous people who are only too happy to share their expertise. Reach out to conference speakers, tech peers in other companies, or even local OWASP chapters, and see who might be able to come in and chat with the team, or record a webinar with someone in the organization. It's a relatively quick win, and it can be a huge benefit for up-and-coming developers to see different security career pathways in front of them.
- Gather for some friendly competition. Learning about security is a lot more fun when you do something a little different and special. Secure coding tournaments are a great way to get developers testing their secure coding skills, and competing with their peers in a gamified environment. Get a fancy dress theme happening, and be creative with the teams (how about developers vs. their managers?). Order some pizza, drinks, get some energetic music pumping, and it can be an event to remember for the whole organization.
Giving back to the community: Download your free Secure Code Bootcamp app
I'm a developer myself, and it has always been the case that we search for what we can share and use for free. It's a point of pride to make some freeware that might help others, and this month is a good time to reflect on our roots and look at what we can provide to the community.
To that end, we're pleased to announce our new, free app, Secure Code Bootcamp. This is a pocket secure coding companion for coders who want to challenge themselves, progressively boosting their security awareness anywhere, anytime.
Download the app for iOS and Android now, and learn how to locate and identify OWASP vulnerabilities in Node.JS, Python:Django, Java:Spring, C# .NET: MVC:
In this most festive of annual occasions for cybersecurity professionals, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a time many companies utilize to reflect on, and appraise, the general security awareness heartbeat across the organization. And with 62% of business experiencing a phishing or social engineering attack in 2018 alone, the importance of ensuring every individual in the business -- whether in a security role or not -- has adequate cybersecurity awareness training cannot be overstated.
As an increasingly global event, the month represents a catch-all for discussing best practices, and the initiatives are deliberately surface-level. However, even organizations with robust security programs and in-house specialists can use this time to assess the more technical teams for what they need to become more security-aware in the context of their role.
For AppSec specialists, development team leads, and the more security-savvy members of the engineering cohort, it might feel a bit like being taught how to suck eggs, but it is these champions within the business that can push security and safety to new heights, company-wide.
How to elevate your Cybersecurity Awareness Month
This is a golden opportunity for the security team to extend something of an olive branch to the development team, perhaps in the form of inter-team activities and programs that can help developers feel more positive about security in the context of their work.
Some kick-off ideas include:
- Help developers get the support they need to learn about secure coding. Not having the right tools for the job is a great way to feel justified in slam-dunking a task into the Too Hard Basket. If developers don't have the right training and tools to see security as a priority in the coding process, then it's no wonder so many teams are ill-equipped to keep common vulnerabilities out of their code.
Use this month to understand what is missing in the development tech stack, which managers can work together to improve communication and increase security visibility, and who can continue advocating for and championing security going forward. - Host a "Lunch and Learn'event. The cybersecurity and development communities are, in general, brimming with incredibly generous people who are only too happy to share their expertise. Reach out to conference speakers, tech peers in other companies, or even local OWASP chapters, and see who might be able to come in and chat with the team, or record a webinar with someone in the organization. It's a relatively quick win, and it can be a huge benefit for up-and-coming developers to see different security career pathways in front of them.
- Gather for some friendly competition. Learning about security is a lot more fun when you do something a little different and special. Secure coding tournaments are a great way to get developers testing their secure coding skills, and competing with their peers in a gamified environment. Get a fancy dress theme happening, and be creative with the teams (how about developers vs. their managers?). Order some pizza, drinks, get some energetic music pumping, and it can be an event to remember for the whole organization.
Giving back to the community: Download your free Secure Code Bootcamp app
I'm a developer myself, and it has always been the case that we search for what we can share and use for free. It's a point of pride to make some freeware that might help others, and this month is a good time to reflect on our roots and look at what we can provide to the community.
To that end, we're pleased to announce our new, free app, Secure Code Bootcamp. This is a pocket secure coding companion for coders who want to challenge themselves, progressively boosting their security awareness anywhere, anytime.
Download the app for iOS and Android now, and learn how to locate and identify OWASP vulnerabilities in Node.JS, Python:Django, Java:Spring, C# .NET: MVC:
Click on the link below and download the PDF of this resource.
Secure Code Warrior is here for your organization to help you secure code across the entire software development lifecycle and create a culture in which cybersecurity is top of mind. Whether you’re an AppSec Manager, Developer, CISO, or anyone involved in security, we can help your organization reduce risks associated with insecure code.
View reportBook a demo
Matias Madou, Ph.D. is a security expert, researcher, and CTO and co-founder of Secure Code Warrior. Matias obtained his Ph.D. in Application Security from Ghent University, focusing on static analysis solutions. He later joined Fortify in the US, where he realized that it was insufficient to solely detect code problems without aiding developers in writing secure code. This inspired him to develop products that assist developers, alleviate the burden of security, and exceed customers' expectations. When he is not at his desk as part of Team Awesome, he enjoys being on stage presenting at conferences including RSA Conference, BlackHat and DefCon.
Matias is a researcher and developer with more than 15 years of hands-on software security experience. He has developed solutions for companies such as Fortify Software and his own company Sensei Security. Over his career, Matias has led multiple application security research projects which have led to commercial products and boasts over 10 patents under his belt. When he is away from his desk, Matias has served as an instructor for advanced application security training courses and regularly speaks at global conferences including RSA Conference, Black Hat, DefCon, BSIMM, OWASP AppSec and BruCon.
Matias holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Ghent University, where he studied application security through program obfuscation to hide the inner workings of an application.
In this most festive of annual occasions for cybersecurity professionals, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a time many companies utilize to reflect on, and appraise, the general security awareness heartbeat across the organization. And with 62% of business experiencing a phishing or social engineering attack in 2018 alone, the importance of ensuring every individual in the business -- whether in a security role or not -- has adequate cybersecurity awareness training cannot be overstated.
As an increasingly global event, the month represents a catch-all for discussing best practices, and the initiatives are deliberately surface-level. However, even organizations with robust security programs and in-house specialists can use this time to assess the more technical teams for what they need to become more security-aware in the context of their role.
For AppSec specialists, development team leads, and the more security-savvy members of the engineering cohort, it might feel a bit like being taught how to suck eggs, but it is these champions within the business that can push security and safety to new heights, company-wide.
How to elevate your Cybersecurity Awareness Month
This is a golden opportunity for the security team to extend something of an olive branch to the development team, perhaps in the form of inter-team activities and programs that can help developers feel more positive about security in the context of their work.
Some kick-off ideas include:
- Help developers get the support they need to learn about secure coding. Not having the right tools for the job is a great way to feel justified in slam-dunking a task into the Too Hard Basket. If developers don't have the right training and tools to see security as a priority in the coding process, then it's no wonder so many teams are ill-equipped to keep common vulnerabilities out of their code.
Use this month to understand what is missing in the development tech stack, which managers can work together to improve communication and increase security visibility, and who can continue advocating for and championing security going forward. - Host a "Lunch and Learn'event. The cybersecurity and development communities are, in general, brimming with incredibly generous people who are only too happy to share their expertise. Reach out to conference speakers, tech peers in other companies, or even local OWASP chapters, and see who might be able to come in and chat with the team, or record a webinar with someone in the organization. It's a relatively quick win, and it can be a huge benefit for up-and-coming developers to see different security career pathways in front of them.
- Gather for some friendly competition. Learning about security is a lot more fun when you do something a little different and special. Secure coding tournaments are a great way to get developers testing their secure coding skills, and competing with their peers in a gamified environment. Get a fancy dress theme happening, and be creative with the teams (how about developers vs. their managers?). Order some pizza, drinks, get some energetic music pumping, and it can be an event to remember for the whole organization.
Giving back to the community: Download your free Secure Code Bootcamp app
I'm a developer myself, and it has always been the case that we search for what we can share and use for free. It's a point of pride to make some freeware that might help others, and this month is a good time to reflect on our roots and look at what we can provide to the community.
To that end, we're pleased to announce our new, free app, Secure Code Bootcamp. This is a pocket secure coding companion for coders who want to challenge themselves, progressively boosting their security awareness anywhere, anytime.
Download the app for iOS and Android now, and learn how to locate and identify OWASP vulnerabilities in Node.JS, Python:Django, Java:Spring, C# .NET: MVC:
Table of contents
Matias Madou, Ph.D. is a security expert, researcher, and CTO and co-founder of Secure Code Warrior. Matias obtained his Ph.D. in Application Security from Ghent University, focusing on static analysis solutions. He later joined Fortify in the US, where he realized that it was insufficient to solely detect code problems without aiding developers in writing secure code. This inspired him to develop products that assist developers, alleviate the burden of security, and exceed customers' expectations. When he is not at his desk as part of Team Awesome, he enjoys being on stage presenting at conferences including RSA Conference, BlackHat and DefCon.
Secure Code Warrior is here for your organization to help you secure code across the entire software development lifecycle and create a culture in which cybersecurity is top of mind. Whether you’re an AppSec Manager, Developer, CISO, or anyone involved in security, we can help your organization reduce risks associated with insecure code.
Book a demoDownloadResources to get you started
Benchmarking Security Skills: Streamlining Secure-by-Design in the Enterprise
The Secure-by-Design movement is the future of secure software development. Learn about the key elements companies need to keep in mind when they think about a Secure-by-Design initiative.
DigitalOcean Decreases Security Debt with Secure Code Warrior
DigitalOcean's use of Secure Code Warrior training has significantly reduced security debt, allowing teams to focus more on innovation and productivity. The improved security has strengthened their product quality and competitive edge. Looking ahead, the SCW Trust Score will help them further enhance security practices and continue driving innovation.
Resources to get you started
Trust Score Reveals the Value of Secure-by-Design Upskilling Initiatives
Our research has shown that secure code training works. Trust Score, using an algorithm drawing on more than 20 million learning data points from work by more than 250,000 learners at over 600 organizations, reveals its effectiveness in driving down vulnerabilities and how to make the initiative even more effective.
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Reactive Versus Preventive Security: Prevention Is a Better Cure
The idea of bringing preventive security to legacy code and systems at the same time as newer applications can seem daunting, but a Secure-by-Design approach, enforced by upskilling developers, can apply security best practices to those systems. It’s the best chance many organizations have of improving their security postures.
The Benefits of Benchmarking Security Skills for Developers
The growing focus on secure code and Secure-by-Design principles requires developers to be trained in cybersecurity from the start of the SDLC, with tools like Secure Code Warrior’s Trust Score helping measure and improve their progress.
Driving Meaningful Success for Enterprise Secure-by-Design Initiatives
Our latest research paper, Benchmarking Security Skills: Streamlining Secure-by-Design in the Enterprise is the result of deep analysis of real Secure-by-Design initiatives at the enterprise level, and deriving best practice approaches based on data-driven findings.
Developer-driven coding.
Securely.
Contact us today and make software security an intrinsic part of your development process.
