In this article, I'll present a case study of an extension to SDL which, if adopted, could translate into a much better flow of information between users and designers of the security features of software products. My approach calls for recognizing that security of software is not a compliance artifact. Rather, it is a set of key features that can and should be documented, evaluated, and used when making purchasing decisions. The security features—I like to call them security guarantees of the software—are deep and multileveled. At a high level understandable by most users, they should be described in the customer-facing sales literature. Lower-level technical details targeted at experts should be readily available for inspection by those curious to understand the technology.

At MSDN.

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