Re:The software development final exam: Mathematics
by cperciva on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @06:19AM
(#4635731)
you made some pretty bold statements about what this exam is supposed to measure and I don't think this lives up to it.
I believe I said most developers should be able to answer a majority of the questions -- not necessarily every single one. But I do feel that all developers should have some basic knowledge of security, and the difference between hash and MAC is a pretty important thing to know there... as all the people who have been caught using them wrong can testify to.
Re:The software development final exam: Mathematics
by _pius on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @06:22AM
(#4635736)
But I do feel that all developers should have some basic knowledge of security, and the difference between hash and MAC is a pretty important thing to know there... as all the people who have been caught using them wrong can testify to.
Touché. :)
Fair enough, but you made some pretty bold statements about what this exam is supposed to measure and I don't think this lives up to it.
For instance, I happened to have taken an intro security course taught by Ron Rivest; thus, I know the difference between a MAC and a hash function. But I wouldn't claim that another developer who didn't have exposure to the material was deficient in basic knowledge, anymore than I would make that claim about a security researcher who didn't know the basics of how a support vector machine works. These things are pretty specialized, even if they're not particularly difficult to learn.