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Wintellect Joins Secure Software Forum Program to Highlight Security Education As an Essential Part of Secure Software Development

Posted on: Monday, 12 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference -- S.P.I. Dynamics Incorporated, the leader in Web application security testing software, today announced that Wintellect, a leading provider of training, consulting and debugging services specializing in .NET Framework- based and Windows technologies, has joined the Secure Software Forum(TM) 2005 Educational Program. A significant concern in today's development environment is the absence of awareness and knowledge required to build secure software from the ground up. With Wintellect's involvement, the program will deliver valuable educational resources targeted specifically to the developer community to encourage the implementation of best practices to help address potential security defects in software early.

"We are delighted that Wintellect chose to join the Secure Software Forum Program to raise awareness around the need for secure coding practices," said Brian Cohen, president and CEO of SPI Dynamics. "The number one reason security defects exist within applications is due to the fundamental lack of developer awareness; and approximately 50 percent of developers worldwide are using Microsoft's Visual Studio to build applications. Wintellect's well- known, seasoned Microsoft educational experts will help to enable change within the developer community."

"Bringing together the disciplines of information security and software development is an important undertaking which is relatively new to most organizations and will have many lasting impacts," said Lewis Frazer III, president and CEO, Wintellect. "Early detection and resolution of security defects saves organizations both time and money. We intimately understand the basic drivers for developers to be coding securely and we are looking forward to participating in the Secure Software Forum Program efforts to drive change and improvements in the software development process."

The ongoing Secure Software Forum Program initiatives aim to help educate executives, security professionals, quality assurance professionals and software developers on the need for more secure software. In addition, the program encourages the implementation of best practices to help address potential security defects in software early on in the development process.

"Microsoft is committed to addressing application security through changes to existing development processes, education, and the use of tools," said Rick Samona, product manager in the .NET Developer Product Marketing Group at Microsoft Corp. "The internal implementation and public release of Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), combined with our participation this year in the Secure Software Forum Program, are two examples of our strong commitment to improving application security. A resounding concern we continue to hear during the Secure Software Forum Executive Roundtable discussions is the need for developers to be educated on secure coding. We are pleased to have Wintellect, with its well-respected reputation in the developer community, join in our ongoing efforts to raise awareness of application security issues."

A "Meet the Evangelists" reception, co-sponsored by SPI Dynamics, Microsoft, Wintellect and Software Development Magazine, will be held on September 12, 2005 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time at the Figueroa Hotel in Los Angeles, California, in conjunction with Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Representatives from sponsoring companies and key participants from the Secure Software Forum Educational Program will be available.

Additionally, Wintellect, Microsoft and SPI Dynamics will be launching a six city tour of free joint workshops throughout the United States and Canada to encourage a better understanding of implementing security within all phases of software development in order to produce more secure code. These include:

* Chicago, IL - Thursday, September 29, 2005 * Atlanta, GA - Wednesday, October 12, 2005 * Dallas, TX - Thursday, October 13, 2005 * Seattle, WA - Tuesday, October 18, 2005 * Toronto, Canada - Wednesday, October 26, 2005 * New York, NY - Thursday, October 27, 2005 About the Secure Software Forum

The launch event for this program, the Secure Software Forum (http://www.securesoftwareforum.com/), was held in San Francisco in February 2005 and consisted of leading companies and notable industry experts spanning all disciplines within the application lifecycle. The Secure Software Forum was created to raise awareness for the critical need for security assurance throughout the application lifecycle and the goal to provide a starting place for cross-industry discussions and education on how best to implement Application Security Assurance Programs (ASAP)(TM). The philosophy of the ASAP is to embrace a broad set of principles to improve the security of software, including

* An executive level commitment to secure software; * Security must be a consideration from the very beginning of the software development lifecycle; * Secure software development must encompass People, Process and Technology; * An adoption of metrics to measure security improvements and enforce accountability; and, * Education as a key enabler of security improvements.

By increasing public awareness of the need for comprehensive, systemic approaches to secure software development, the Secure Software Forum brings together industry experts from various disciplines and champions an open dialogue to help all organizations in their goal of creating more secure software.

For more information about additional Secure Software Forum on-going activities such as joint workshops and executive roundtables, please visit http://www.securesoftwareforum.com/.

About S.P.I. Dynamics Incorporated Start Secure. Stay Secure. Security Assurance Throughout the Application Lifecycle.

SPI Dynamics' suite of Web application security products help organizations build and maintain secure Web applications, preventing attacks that would otherwise go undetected by today's traditional corporate Internet security measures. The company's products enable all phases of the software development lifecycle to collaborate in order to build, test and deploy secure Web applications. SPI Dynamics' internal research and development group, SPI Labs, is widely recognized as one of the leading authorities in Web application security. Founded in 2000 by security specialists, SPI Dynamics is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit http://www.spidynamics.com/ or call (678) 781-4800.

SPI Dynamics is a trademark of S.P.I. Dynamics Incorporated. All other companies and products mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners and/or affiliates.

S.P.I. Dynamics Incorporated

CONTACT: Michelle Schafer of Merritt Group, +1-703-390-1530, or cell,+1-703-403-6377, or schafer@merrittgrp.com , for S.P.I. Dynamics; or AshleyVandiver of SPI Dynamics, +1-678-781-4841, or cell, +1-404-432-8657, oravandiver@spidynamics.com

Web site: http://www.securesoftwareforum.com/http://www.spidynamics.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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