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Large Language Models (LLMs) are gaining momentum in software development with prompt-driven programming enabling developers to create code from natural language (NL) instructions. However, studies have questioned their ability to produce…
The damage caused by cybercrime makes the development of secure software inevitable. Although many tools and frameworks exist to support the development of secure software, statistics on cybercrime show no improvement in recent years. To…
Default configuration of various software applications often neglects security objectives. We tested the default configuration of TLS in dozen web and application servers. The results show that "secure by default" principle should be…
Software needs to be secure, in particular, when deployed to critical infrastructures. Secure coding guidelines capture practices in industrial software engineering to ensure the security of code. This study aims to assess the level of…
AI coding assistants are now central to professional software development, yet their impact on how developers think about and practice security remains poorly understood. While prior work has documented vulnerability rates in AI-generated…
Security must be considered in almost every software system. Unfortunately, selecting and implementing security features remains challenging due to the variety of security threats and possible countermeasures. While security standards are…
The choice of password composition policy to enforce on a password-protected system represents a critical security decision, and has been shown to significantly affect the vulnerability of user-chosen passwords to guessing attacks. In…
When writing software code, developers typically prioritise functionality over security, either consciously or unconsciously through biases and heuristics. This is often attributed to tangible pressures such as client requirements, but…
With generative AI becoming widespread, the existence of AI-based programming assistants for developers is no surprise. Developers increasingly use them for their work, including generating code to fulfil the data protection requirements…
Nowadays, the use of agile software development methods like Scrum is common in industry and academia. Considering the current attacking landscape, it is clear that developing secure software should be a main concern in all software…
Identifying security issues early is encouraged to reduce the latent negative impacts on software systems. Code review is a widely-used method that allows developers to manually inspect modified code, catching security issues during a…
Password-based authentication faces various security and usability issues. Password managers help alleviate some of these issues by enabling users to manage their passwords effectively. However, malicious client-side scripts and browser…
Password advice is constantly circulated by standards agencies, companies, websites and specialists. But there appears to be great diversity in terms of the advice that is given. Users have noticed that different websites are enforcing…
Despite their well-known security problems, passwords are still the incumbent authentication method for virtually all online services. To remedy the situation, end-users are very often referred to password managers as a solution to the…
AI code generation tools have gained significant popularity among developers, who use them to assist in software development due to their capability to generate code. Existing studies mainly explored the quality, e.g., correctness and…
To protect against misuse of passwords compromised in a breach, consumers should promptly change affected passwords and any similar passwords on other accounts. Ideally, affected companies should strongly encourage this behavior and have…
To build secure software, developers often work together during software development and maintenance to find, fix, and prevent security vulnerabilities. Examining the nature of developer interactions during their security activities…
Context: Writing Clean Code understandable by other collaborators has become crucial to enhancing collaboration and productivity. However, very little is known regarding whether developers agree with Clean Code Principles and how they apply…
Security is a requirement of utmost importance to produce high-quality software. However, there is still a considerable amount of vulnerabilities being discovered and fixed almost weekly. We hypothesize that developers affect the…
Over the years security experts in the field of Information Technology have had a tough time in making passwords secure. This paper studies and takes a careful look at this issue from the angle of philosophy and cognitive science. We have…