How can you teach developers to prioritize security in Operating Systems?

1 Explain the security goals

The first step to teach developers to prioritize security in operating systems is to explain the security goals and why they matter. The security goals are confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, authorization, and accountability. You can use real-world scenarios and analogies to illustrate how these goals can be achieved or compromised in operating systems. For example, you can compare confidentiality to locking a door, integrity to verifying a signature, availability to keeping a backup, authentication to showing an ID, authorization to checking a permission, and accountability to logging an action.

2 Introduce the security threats

The next step is to introduce the security threats and how they can affect the security goals. The security threats are malicious actions or events that can compromise the security of the operating system or its users. You can categorize the security threats into three types: interception, interruption, and modification. You can also provide examples of common security threats, such as malware, denial-of-service attacks, buffer overflows, privilege escalation, and unauthorized access. You can also demonstrate how these threats can exploit the vulnerabilities or weaknesses of the operating system or its components.

3 Teach the security principles

The third step is to teach the security principles and how they can guide the design and implementation of secure operating systems. The security principles are general rules or guidelines that can help developers to avoid or mitigate the security threats and achieve the security goals. You can introduce some of the most important security principles, such as least privilege, defense in depth, fail-safe defaults, economy of mechanism, complete mediation, open design, and psychological acceptability. You can also explain how these principles can be applied or violated in operating systems.

4 Show the security mechanisms

The fourth step is to show the security mechanisms and how they can enforce the security principles and protect the operating system and its users. The security mechanisms are specific techniques or tools that can provide security functions or services in operating systems. You can demonstrate some of the most common security mechanisms, such as encryption, hashing, digital signatures, certificates, firewalls, access control lists, role-based access control, audit trails, and sandboxing. You can also show how these mechanisms can be integrated or configured in operating systems.

5 Practice the security skills

The fifth step is to practice the security skills and how they can help developers to test and improve the security of their operating systems. The security skills are practical abilities or knowledge that can enable developers to perform security tasks or activities in operating systems. You can encourage developers to practice some of the most essential security skills, such as threat modeling, risk assessment, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, code review, debugging, patching, and incident response. You can also provide feedback and resources to help developers to learn from their mistakes and successes.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?