Secure Application Development

secappdev.org is a non-profit organization that was set up to increase security awareness in the developer community and to promote secure software engineering practices. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Solvay Business School and L-Sec (Leuven Security Excellence Consortium) are secappdev.org partners.

Since 2005, we have organized an annual intensive secure application development course. The next presentation runs from March 3rd to March 7th 2008.

The course is aimed at software architects, designers, developers, testers and technical project managers. Participants are free to choose from 2 parallel tracks. For optimal interaction we limit the total number of places to 50. The first-rate instructors have wide-ranging experience in academia and industry, are experts in application security and are commited to interactive teaching.

The course focuses on secure software engineering principles and techniques for countering threats and vulnerabilities in today's target environments.

It provides participants with a thorough grounding in application security. It focuses on the following topics:

  • Mainstream security technologies,
  • Security related requirements,
  • Secure application architectures,
  • Cost-effective security features,
  • Coding vulnerabilities
  • Assurance.
In order to benefit optimally from the course, participants will have a working knowledge of most of the following:
  • An unmanaged programming language such as C or C++;
  • A managed programming language such as Java or C#;
  • Key Internet applications such as mail, directory services, network file systems, remote procedure calls.
The course is taught in English.

Co-located with the course, there is also an opportunity to take the GIAC Secure Software Programmer (GSSP) Certification Exam. The exam is offered by the SANS Software Security Institute at a much reduced price for the occasion of the secappdev course. Course participants benefit from a further reduction (see our registration page).