Software Assurance

Software Assurance

This Bloginar's goal is to chat about creating, implementing and selecting secure software. We’ll be discussing relevant standards set forth by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency (NSA). Additionally, we will also discuss defining your security requirements for software and how you can ensure software meets your security expectations.

Presenter:

Tim Perez, M.S., MCSE. Tim’s experience includes over 8 years as a senior technologist and security officer with a local law enforcement agency. He was responsible for systems-wide hardware and software security. He managed audits performed upon the agency by the Department of Justice (DOJ), California Law Enforcement Telecommunication Systems (CLETS) auditors and other related agencies. Joining Tim, will be guest speaker Dan Wolf, former Director of the Information Assurance Directorate at the NSA .

Event Date: 11/11/2009

Event Time: 11:30 am EDT, 10:30 am CDT, 9:30 am MDT, and 8:30 am PDT.

Event Place: This Page - just watch for event activity below.

URL: http://www.wgu.edu/securityblogs/software

Click here to email a question to the presenter.

What is Software Assurance?

Software Assurance is a subset of the larger field of study known as Information Assurance. PC Magazine defines Information Assurance as:

“the technical and managerial measures designed to ensure the confidentiality, possession or control, integrity, authenticity, availability and utility of information and information systems. This term, which has spread from government use into common parlance, is sometimes synonymous with information security.”

Taking that a little further we can define Software Assurance (SwA) as:

“the level of confidence that software is free from vulnerabilities, either intentionally designed into the software or accidentally inserted at anytime during its lifecycle, and that the software functions in the intended manner” (National Information Assurance Glossary)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established guidelines for which software should meet in order to be used in “secure” applications. The basic criteria are:
  
    1. Software should be trustworthy
    2. Software should be predictable (software should run and operate as intended)
    3. Conformity to security best practices

Throughout this bloginar we’ll explore several details pertaining to Software Assurance (SwA) and how it relates to YOU.

Packaged Transcript from the November 11 Event