0400 - Secure Coding

Course Description

Overview

In today’s interconnected and increasingly digital world, secure coding is a fundamental aspect of responsible and trustworthy software development. It is essential for ensuring programs and systems are resistant to security threats, and enables you to employ secure design principles and implement safeguards to avoid potential risks.

This eight-week course is developed in partnership with the University of Waterloo's Cybersecurity and Privacy Insitute. Designed for software developers and engineers, this course introduces key concepts for securing software applications so you can protect sensitive data, prevent security breaches, and ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of software products. It explores the strategies you can use throughout the software development lifecycle to make code more secure and reduce the need for costly security patches in the future.

Through case studies featuring real-world examples, you will discover the common vulnerabilities that exist within systems and better understand how to protect against them. You will also learn how modern secure coding tools and practices, such as secure coding with artificial intelligence (AI), can minimize risk and foster a safer and more resilient digital environment for your organization and your users.

Who Should Enrol

• Software developers or engineers (at any level) who need to know how to prevent possible security risks and vulnerabilities.
• Software development teams tasked with implementing cybersecurity awareness (e.g., analysts and architects).

What you Will Learn

• Follow software development lifecycle (SDLC) guidelines to develop safe coding habits.
• Use secure design principles to check code for security issues and implement fixes with CodeQL.
• Understand and explain the requirements for designing secure software systems.
• Explore how code generation tools can aid in project workflow or pose security risks.

Details

• Receive instruction from secure coding experts in a course authored by University of Waterloo faculty.
• Participate in approximately five hours of independent, online learning each week (including reflection and discussion tasks, exercises, and assignments.)
• Practice identifying and reporting security vulnerabilities through diagnostic exercises.
• Integrate your learning into real-world scenarios with hands-on lab simulations.