Professionals in software development do not mean professionals in cyber security.
Same way you don’t expect a geologist to be a mason
Comment on Fake job interviews target developers with new Python backdoor
prof@infosec.pub 6 months ago
It’s sad that this works. You’d think especially software professionals would be the most vigilant about running unknown code.
sukhmel@programming.dev 6 months ago
prof@infosec.pub 6 months ago
That’s a bad take. Unless you get your knowledge purely from shady tutorials or have a fast track bootcamp education, it’s unlikely you never touch on security basics.
I’m a software design undergrad and had to take IT Sec classes. Other profs also touched on how to safely handle dependencies and such.
While IT Security is its own specialisation, blindly trusting source code others provide you with is something a good programmer shouldn’t do.
If you need a metaphor: Just because a woodworker specialises in tables, doesn’t mean they can’t build a chair.
sukhmel@programming.dev 6 months ago
I graduated in CS in this century and we never touched on security. If not for my own curiosity and obligatory annual compliance education on the job (and only on the last one) I would have known near nothing
expr@programming.dev 6 months ago
In my experience, your average software developer has absolutely terrible security hygiene. It’s why you see countless instances of private keys copy/pasted into public GitHub repos or the seemingly daily occurrences of massive data breaches.
My undergrad in CS (which I should point out, is still by far the most common major for software engineers) did not require a security course, and I’m fairly confident that this is pretty typical. To be honest, I wouldn’t have trusted any of my CS professors to know the first thing about security. It’s a completely different field and something that generally requires a lot of practical experience. The closest we ever got was an explanation of asymmetric vs. symmetric encryption. There was certainly no discussion of even basic things like how to properly manage secrets or authn best practices.
Everything I know now as a senior software engineer about software security has come from experience on the job. I’ve been very fortunate to work at some places that take it very seriously (including a government contractor writing cybersecurity software for the Department of Defense) and learned a lot there. But a lot of shops don’t have a culture that promotes good security hygiene, and it shows in the litany of insecure software out in the wild today.
prof@infosec.pub 6 months ago
Thanks for the response. Seems like I can’t assume other CS degrees are comparable.
We definitely have a strong focus on security in my degree, but I still believe that awareness of what you’re running on your machine and potential dangers of those programs fall into the category of common sense. Mishandling secrets, having bad authentication or not knowing how to setup SSL is definitely experience stuff though.
Dra@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
You are young and blissfully naive. Sec being included with development is a recent thing
prof@infosec.pub 6 months ago
Neither young or naive. Just assuming others share my experience.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
I run interviews, and a lot of applicants can’t write code. So they’re probably going after low-hanging fruit like that.
prof@infosec.pub 6 months ago
Makes sense, I feel bad for the guys that were happy for a chance and got screwed over.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Some tips for people, real companies won’t:
Be careful out there!
poo@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Regarding that last one, my last job actually happened because I was made an offer during the first interview before even doing any sort of technical or programming test…
… of course most of the developers there were awful, so I wish they had.
It’s almost as if technical interviews are extremely important in vetting applicants…
echodot@feddit.uk 6 months ago
I’ve been offered a job during the interview. But I did think it was super sketchy and didn’t take it.
But honestly it was more of a red flag of them just being desperate than anything dodgy going on. They really weren’t prepared to pay that much money, so they wanted to offer people jobs so they wouldn’t think about it.
veloxization@yiffit.net 6 months ago
I’ve gotten offered a job on the first interview and I worked there for a while. Then again, that was not in my field of IT and was a part-time job with a well-known company, alongside studies. So while it can be a red flag, it’s not always. Depends on the situation. Just stay vigilant.