Stanford offers Advanced Computer Security certificate online

Stanford University now offers the Advanced Computer Security certificate program completely online – a frontline defense against the changing landscape of Internet threats.

Designed for software architects, engineers, designers, and development teams, this advanced program teaches participants how to build in-depth software security strategies from the initial design phase, as well as techniques to improve existing software. Courses are taught by three renowned experts in the field: Stanford University Professors Dan Boneh and John Mitchell, and Neil Daswani, Stanford Ph.D. and senior security software engineer at Google.

All three instructors consult with governments, corporations and organizations worldwide. Boneh and Mitchell are widely published, and have collaborated on the development of several security tools, including the 2006 Horizon Awards Winner Password Hash, an anti-phishing plug-in. Daswani has served in a variety of research, development, teaching, and managerial roles at Stanford University, and is the lead author of the book Foundations of Security: What Every Programmer Needs to Know.

Specific topics covered include secure software design, buffer overflows, SQL injection attacks, authentication, access control, data integrity, symmetric encryption, public-key cryptography, and more. The Advanced Computer Security certificate program requires six courses — three core and three electives. The instructors regularly update the content. Each course is self-paced and approximately six hours long, and is available at any time.