MetaCompliance Release New Secure Coding eLearning Series

July 8, 2020
MetaCompliance Release New Secure Coding eLearning Series

MetaCompliance is delighted to announce the latest addition to it’s award winning eLearning library. The new Secure Coding Series aims to educate users about critical security risks to web applications and secure coding practices.

Security Threats and Software Development

As technology constantly advances, software development teams are bombarded with security threats at an alarming rate. In today’s evolving cyber threat landscape, software flaws and poor coding practices can increase the risk of data breaches, cause crippling financial losses, and damage the corporate reputation of organisations.

All too often professional programmers and testers are unfamiliar with the principles used to secure software and common web application vulnerabilities. The reality is that a small flaw in the development of software can cause a major incident. 

Most notably, the infamous WannaCry cyber attack occurred when a Microsoft security vulnerability was exploited by ransomware. The impact of the WannaCry ransomware attack was substantial, disrupting services across a third of hospital trusts and around 8% of GP practices. The estimated total cost of restoring the affected systems reached £92 million, according to the Department of Health & Social Care.

Today there is an ever-rising number of disclosed vulnerabilities. In fact, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) vulnerability list, shows that in the last 3 years there have been 40,569 application vulnerabilities and the number of security vulnerabilities in open source software has more than doubled last year.

Embedding a Culture of Secure Coding

To help organisations embed a culture of secure coding, the Secure Coding Series explores common coding vulnerabilities and recommendations identified by OWASP, a globally recognised nonprofit foundation that works to improve the security of software.

OWASP, also known as The Open Web Application Security Project describe themselves as ‘an open-minded community dedicated to enabling organizations to conceive, develop, acquire, operate, and maintain applications that can be trusted.’ 

Speaking about the Secure Coding Series, Robert O’Brien, CEO of MetaCompliance said: “Security is not always the primary development driver for Software Developers and Testers, and can sometimes be an afterthought. This means that all too often companies unknowingly accept risk by using out-dated methods of development which could leave them vulnerable to an attack.

Our new Secure Coding Series supports organisations to empower these employees to adopt a culture of secure coding and work towards minimising these vulnerabilities. This not only helps to mitigate the risk of a cyber attack but gives organisations a competitive edge.”

Engaging eLearning

Using engaging micro-style storytelling, the new eLearning content educates employees to  improve their ability to write secure software, boost their understanding of how software systems are hacked, and decrease the time it takes to solve security related problems.

In an effort to keep up with the latest OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks, the eLearning series is designed to be modular so that organisations can pivot to continually reflect the current threat landscape.

The Secure Coding series is available in English UK and English US variants.

Find Out More About our Secure Coding Series

MetaLearning Fusion is the next generation of eLearning and it has been specifically designed to provide the best possible Cyber Security and privacy training for your staff.

It enables organisations to build bespoke courses for their staff from an extensive library of short eLearning courses. The courses are easy to create and can be personalised and branded to make the content more relevant to your employees. 

Get in touch for further information on how MetaLearning can be used to transform Cyber Security training within your organisation.