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I am an IT student and I am now in the 3rd year in university. Until now we've
been studing a lot of subjects related to computers in general (programming,
algorithms, computer architecture, maths, etc).

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I am very sure that nobody can learn every thing about security but sure there is
a "minimum" knowledge every programmer or IT student should know about it
and my question is what is this minimum knowledge?
Can you suggest some e-books or courses or anything can help to start with this
road?
security

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edited Jul 3 '12 at 16:14

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5 revs, 3 users 50%
M.H

Quite similar to stackoverflow.com/questions/325862/ Thomas May 8 '10 at 12:21

9
2

Rule #1: Never trust user's input. Not even if it's your Grandmother Anthony Forloney

..and this thread also has the great information - stackoverflow.com/questions/72394/

at 12:28
my question isn't only about programmers and their mistakes,also about IT and computer science
students Mohammad AL Hammod May 8 '10 at 12:28

Watch your error messages. While you want to be user friendly, the difference between "This account does no
and "The password is invalid" can be dangerous in some cases. Michael Mior May 8 '12 at 2:26

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16 Answers
activeoldest

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Principles to keep in mind if you want your applications to be secure:

Never trust any input!

Validate input from all untrusted sources - use whitelists not
blacklists
Plan for security from the start - it's not something you can
bolt on at the end
Keep it simple - complexity increases the likelihood of
security holes
Keep your attack surface to a minimum
Make sure you fail securely
Use defence in depth
Adhere to the principle of least privilege
Use threat modelling
Compartmentalize - so your system is not all or nothing

Hiding secrets is hard - and secrets hidden in code won't stay

secret for long

Don't write your own crypto

Using crypto doesn't mean you're secure (attackers will look
for a weaker link)

Be aware of buffer overflows and how to protect against them

There are some excellent books and articles online about making your
applications secure:

Writing Secure Code 2nd Edition - I think every

programmer should read this
Building Secure Software: How to Avoid Security Problems
the Right Way
Secure Programming Cookbook
Exploiting Software
Security Engineering - an excellent read
Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO

How to survive the heat death of the universe?

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vote64d
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The eventual heat death of the universe is an awful time to be alive considering
you wouldn't have long left after the last star finally fades away.
In this scenario there is a small group of about a dozen human survivors who
live in a colony on an earth-like planet that orbits the last star to burn out. The
group know of their impending doom and have time to prepare for it, about 10
years (but feel free to adjust this time if you think of something cool).
Now I fully expect answers that lead to the eventual death of everything from
this scenario but what would this group need to do in an attempt to continue
existing for as long as possible in a universe with no heat?
Note: This would be trillions of years into the future so feel free to go a little
crazy with future science, as long as it makes sense. It would also be interesting
to see how a race of humans with current-day technology could survive in the
same conditions.
apocalypse

energy

survival

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universe

death

edited Feb 3 at 16:30

asked Feb 2 at 11:27

Hohmannfan

Gorp

2,270630

435128

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Monica Cellio
So, I thought this site was called "word building", as in etymology. I was very confused by the relevance of this
question initially... Smiley Sam Feb 4 at 19:16

2 The "Heat Death of the Universe" is not "a universe with no heat", but rather, a universe where everything local
the same amount of heat. Being cold won't be your problem, having no exploitable energy differential (ie., no Po

will. You won't even have enough power to run your own body... RBarryYoungFeb 4 at 20:57

1 And the real problem, is that according to our current understanding, the "Big Rip" (expansion due to Dark ener
get us long before the Heat Death does, and it's appears to be a lot harder to forestall. RBarryYoung
3 How can entropy be reversed? multivax.com/last_question.html (Seriously, I'm the first person to link to this? I
be missing some replies...) Lizard 2 days ago
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21 Answers

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Get out
I mean, literally. As in "get out of the universe". The heat death of our
universe is by definition not a survivable event. That's the bad news. The
good news is that it takes a very, very long time to happen. So a
technological society has time to develop technological solutions to the
problem.
Some things that might work are:
1.

Cross over to an alternative universe. Multiverse theory is

endorsed by a surprisingly large number of prominent physicists. So
let's assume the physicists are right, that multiple universes exist, that at
least some of them still have a few trillion years left in them when our
universe is grinding to a halt, and that science has advanced to the point
where it's possible to travel between universes at will. Why struggle to
survive in a dying universe when you can just move next door and start
over on a new planet?
2.
Return to a previous time in the current universe. So multiverse
theory didn't pan out despite its prominent endorsements; who cares?
Perhaps wormholes are real and capable of traversing both space and
time. If they are, it's plausible that a technological society will learn to
control them before the universe's heat death occurs. And if they do
that, they can use them to travel to any desired place and time within
the current universe. So they can just pick a more hospitable moment in
time, and go there. But might lead to interesting cyclical dilemmas as
repeated generations keep jumping back in time to avoid facing the heat
death of the universe (only to find some subsequent generation already
camped out in their chosen real-estate).
3.
Jump in a black hole. So both multiverses and wormholes turned
out to be fake; guess we're screwed. But no need to wait around to die
an icy death. Instead find the nearest black hole (or use your stockpile
of doomsday devices to create one) and jump in. At least you get to go
out on your own terms. And who knows, maybe black holes are
actually survivable or will transport you to somewhere a little less
doomed. If nothing else, it won't be boring and perhaps relativistic time
dilation will give you a good view of the universe's final moments.