Embedding security into visual programming courses

Abstract

A visual programming course can be set up in a way that draws a general audience from different disciplines in addition to serving majors. Thereby embedding security into a visual programming course can be effective not only in raising future security workforce, but also in promoting security awareness for non-majors. Moreover, an instructor can create a subsequent advanced course where students can reinforce and expand secure coding practices as well as learn security principles. However, most visual programming books that are suitable as textbooks usually do not deal with security issues. Even if they do, minimal discussion is usually included, even being without connection to security principles. Therefore, in order to imbed security into a visual programming course, instructors are required to spend enormous time in preparation. In this paper, we set out to provide a guideline for embedding security into a visual programming course. Specifically, we will discuss basic and advanced secure coding techniques along with related security principles.