> > As soon as a "non-developer" creates code, they are no longer a > "non-developer". By definition, they are now a developer! > > Of course, they may completely lack any kind of knowledge about security. > Just like most developers, I should add. I expect this problem to *increase* > over time. > > >
For the case that one is creating a product/service I will have to rephrase a bit. Substitute "non-developer" with "person who lacks all but the most basic notions of software engineering". So, technically, yeah they are developers but probably they are not good developers and will run to a multitude of problems, one of which will be security. However, by non-developers, I was meaning people who write code as a "one-off", (e.g. a security consultant writes some quick and dirty code to fuzz something, or someone writing a script for home use). Even if the security knowledge is there, since security is not a required property, it just will not in the resultant code, as the code is supposed to be used a few times and then thrown away (or hopefully rewritten :-) ) > That may be true in some places. But all too often real knowledge and > expertise is rare. Many "System Admins", esp. in the Windows world, do not > understand the underlying technology at all. They only know how to how to > point-and-click based on recipes created by others (e.g., local instructions > or whatever Google tells them). All too often we *train* while ignoring > *education*. > > When they have to program at all, these kinds of people perform "cargo cult > programming" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming ). > If an organization hires (or outsources to) point-n-click admins (which, I'll hazard a guess, on average will cost cheaper than the admins who have invested time sharpening their saw), the organization will most likely have operational problems, which are not limited to security, even before the admins type "shebang", IMHO. _______________________________________________ Secure Coding mailing list (SC-L) SC-L@securecoding.org List information, subscriptions, etc - http://krvw.com/mailman/listinfo/sc-l List charter available at - http://www.securecoding.org/list/charter.php SC-L is hosted and moderated by KRvW Associates, LLC (http://www.KRvW.com) as a free, non-commercial service to the software security community. _______________________________________________
