Do certain types of developers or teams write more secure code? by Anita D'Amico
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Abstract: Why do some developers and development teams write more secure code than others? How do we account for the “human factors” that contribute to vulnerable software? This talk will describe several human factors—developer, team and environmental characteristics—that influence whether developers will inadvertently introduce security weaknesses into their code. I will present the results of research on how factors such as developer experience, disrupted attention, team size, team co-location, communication, work hours, and code rewrites affect software security. The research results are drawn from DoD-funded R&D and academic research conducted on the software engineering practices used to develop both open-source and proprietary software.
Speaker Bio: Anita D’Amico, PhD is CEO of Code Dx, Inc. which provides Application Security Orchestration and Correlation solutions to industry and government, and supports two OWASP projects, Code Pulse and Attack Surface Detector. Her roots are in experimental psychology and human factors, and she has built a career of leading technology development to enhance human performance. Her attention is now focused on enhancing the decisions and work processes of software developers and AppSec analysts to make code more secure. A 2016 Forbes article named Anita as one of “five cool women in security” who serve as role models for young women entering the field. More recently, Anita was named as one of “100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime” in the 2019 book “Women Know Cyber.”