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Microsoft To Teach Undergrads About Secure Computing

gcondon writes "The Register is reporting that Microsoft is teaming up with the University of Leeds to teach students how to write secure code. Given the sheer number of programming errors that can lead to security vulnerabilities, it probably makes sense to learn from the company that has tried them all." UndercoverBrotha points out that University of Leeds is one of several venues: "Microsoft is planning to offer 11-week courses at Universities around the world."

Update: 03/24 18:00 GMT by J : Another report worth reading is Writing Software Right, which requires a free but annoying registration at Technology Review. This regards automated methods of finding software errors (not security specifically). Sun's "Jackpot" is discussed, a lint that also "identifies general instances of good or bad programming."

And Microsoft's efforts in this field are explained as well -- the company "paid more than $60 million in 1999 to acquire Intrinsa, maker of a bug-finding tool called Prefix. The program, which sifts through huge swaths of code searching for patterns that match a defined list of common semantic errors, helped find thousands of mistakes in Windows and other Microsoft products." As a Microsoft QA person says, "Our challenge is to get our software to the point that people expect it to work instead of expecting it to fail."

13 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This just in: by ramzak2k · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    If this is bush's way of Granting Freedom - through shock and awe, Nobody , NOBODY would say that they want it.

    What is our business in the internal affairs of another nation ? When we know that it hasnt worked in palestine - the same bombing, attacks and what not , what is the chance it will work here ? All i hope for right now is that the war is over with minimal casualties both american and iraqi. I dont see a difference.

    --

    Siggy Say, Siggy Do
  2. Re:Or Clinton teaching... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What does marital fidelity have to do with the job of President of the United States? What business is it of yours (or Ken Starr's) who Clinton sleeps with? Wasn't Newt Gingrich sleeping with a House of Representatives employee at the same time that he was preaching "family values"? Mr. Family values was twice divorced the last time I read about him. And his successor-to-be, Bob Livingston, resigned after word of his affair leaked out. And let us not forget Henry Hyde, who headed up the Clinton Tribunal, and who also had an affair with a married woman, destroying her marriage.

    As to the "honesty" issue, I'm sure that Clinton is not the first man alive to ever lie about having an affair.

    I'd much rather have a President whose idea of "getting some on the side" does not involve massive campaign donations from Enron and who does not think "Kenneth" every time he hears the word "lay."

  3. Re:Or Clinton teaching... by jcsehak · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I thought fidelity was for audiophiles?

    No way man. First I'll be all down wit my tape deck, wit the two big reels. I be like "I ain't no dog, baby, I'ma treat you right." Then I see her best friend, and she a slot-loading CD player. Man, that shizzat was tight. So I'm playing them, when I see the second one's sister, and she can take like 5 CDs at once! Hooo lord, I had to have her. I'm tellin ya, ain't no way I can stay wit just one.

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    c-hack.com |
  4. Re:Other suggested instructor - course pairings by AlgUSF · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Mod parent as ignorant. Monica Lewinsky story broke, cruise missles were fired blowing up a pharmeceutical plant. Also known as operation "Wag the Dog".

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    I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
  5. Re:Other suggested instructor - course pairings by JohnnyCannuk · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yeah except 30 countries like Cameroon and Portugal don't count when they don't contribute troops. GW can only convice one other NATO country to join him.

    That's coalition builing for you. If you can't convince your friends, brow-beat, bride and threaten a bunch of 3rd world countries desparate for money and then claim you have a broad "coalition".

    As for Yugoslavia, perhaps you have a different definition of "led" than I do. Being finally forced to do something by your NATO allies after years and years of human rights abuses and atrocities (remember Bosnia?) does not constitute "leading". I guess if Bosnia or Kosovo had an abundance of oil under the ground it would have been a different story.

    Hey remember Rawanda? 1 million people killed in an ethinic genocide, live on TV. Canada (under the UN but with no real help), Belgium and France (yes France, remember them?) sent troops (too little too late unfortunatly). The people of Rawanda suffered far more than the people of Iraq. Where was the 3rd of the 7th then? The 101? The marines? Oh yeah, no oil.

    Even today in parts of the Sudan, children are sold into slavery and forced to fight for warlords. If they refuse they are killed. Special Ops going there after Iraq? How about a few tomohawks? Oh wait, the US government can only spend the millions on a war if it gets something back....like oil.

    Don't try to pretend that this is a broad coalition fighting in Iraq. It isn't. It's the US and Britain, with token help from the Aussies and a few other countries. And don't try to pretend the war is being fought to rid the Iraqi people of Saddam and to find weapons of mass destruction. The US government only seems to be interested in human rights when it's oil supply is threatened.

    Liberating the Iraqi people from a dictator is a noble effort and a good reason to go to war. How come the US doesn't apply the same standard when oil is not involved? Hell, last time the put the Amir of Kuwait back in power. Try looking up his record at Amnesty International and see if the US is really interested in "freedom and democracy" in the middle east.

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    Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha
  6. You all suck my hairy tits! by DaemonBitch · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Sorry, but all you geeks will NEVER know how to get a girl like me off, so fuck it!!!

    1. Re:You all suck my hairy tits! by NedTheNerd · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      thats a scary thought what are you some kind of wird science experiment or do you just have REALLY bad higeen?

  7. Ooops, sorry by slavetrade55 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    i pressed enter at the wrong time

    "What is our business in the internal affairs of another nation ?"

    The business is that Saddam Hussein hasn't disarmed over the last dozen years. It's interesting to note that even France admits he hasn't cooperated. No one wants to wait for a bunch of terrorists carrying aerosol cans full of made-in-iraq anthrax to coat NYC before acting against Mr. Hussein.

    Oh an i hear the objections already..."But there is no connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda! You're just a paranoid war-monger!"

    Saddam Hussein gladly throws money at Palestinian terrorists. How far a jump do you think it is from Islamic Jihad to Osama bin Laden, even if there really is no direct connection between Hussein and Al Qaeda?

    The world will be a better place when he's gone. We'll all be safer, and the Iraqi people, whether they like us or not, will be better off.

    --RMT

  8. Re:Or Clinton teaching... by N3WBI3 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    So youre saying Paula Jones should not have been allowed to persue a sexual harrasment suit? not a womens rights kinda guy are you?

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  9. Re:Right. If only... by enomar · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Granted, we should remove Saddam by force. The problem is that we're a^H^H the superpower. The rest of the world is scared shitless that they're going to be next. No one wants to get bombed because their leader beat Bush's bowling score last week. As a country capable of doing this to any other country, we have a responsibility to get global support before flying off the handle like this. Scaring the rest of the world into submission is not going to help our situation. Eventually they're going to find a way to fight back.

    p.s.- I live near downtown LA. When they do sneak a nuke into the country, remember what I said, because I'll be dust and ash...

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    :wq
  10. Re:I think you are on to something by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Blair is just using the old Lloyd George maxim "Britain reserves the right to bomb niggers."

    That sounds just like George Carlin - "why do we bomb them? Because they're full of brown people! "

    --
    "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
  11. OT: annoying new Slashdot ad system? by StormReaver · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Recently on Slashdot, when I click on the links to story comments, I get taken to the comments and then immediately get directed to an ad page. This isn't a popup that I can filter out, but a forced redirect from Slashdot to the ad page. I have to click the back button to return to the comments page.

    Is this a new (or old) Slashdot ad system? It is infuriatingly annoying.

  12. Re:This just in: by User+956 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The Iraqi people are hostages to a vicious regime.

    Like North Korea?

    The only way to do it, they tried diplomacy for 13 years.

    Like China?

    They tried economic sanctions.

    Like Cuba?

    They tried limited military applications in the northern and southern no-fly zones. That didn't work.

    Like Panama?

    They tried 17 U.N. resolutions.

    Like Israel? (actually, Israel's ignored thirty-two U.N. resolutions to withdraw from occupied territory, so they're worse than Iraq.)

    Now, that leaves only one course. You say, is there any way to do it without conflict? No, everything else was tried.

    Ok, so when are we going to bomb and invade North Korea, China, Cuba, Panama, and Israel?

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.