Exam Essentials: Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Software Development Security

Explain the basic architecture of a relational database management system (RDMS)

• Know the structure of relational DBs.
• Be able to explain the functions of tables (relations), rows (records/tuples) and columns (fields/attributes).
• Know how relationships are defined between tables, and the roles of various types of keys.
• Describe the DB security threats posed by aggregation & inference.

Know the various types of storage

• Explain the differences between:
  • primary memory & virtual memory
  • secondary storage & virtual storage
  • random access storage & sequential storage
  • volatile storage and non-volatile storage.

Explain how expert systems, machine learning & neural networks function

• Expert systems consist of two main components:
  • A knowledge base that contains a series of “if/then” rules
  • An inference engine that uses that information to draw conclusions about other data
• Machine learning techniques attempt to algorithmically discover knowledge from datasets.
• Neural networks simulate the functioning of the human mind to a limited extent, by arranging a series of layered calculations to solve problems.
• Neural networks require extensive training on a particular problem before they are able to offer solutions.

Understand the models of systems development

• Know that the waterfall model describes a sequential development process that results in the development of a finished product. Developers may step back only one phase in the process if errors are discovered.
• The spiral model uses several iterations of the waterfall model to produce a number of fully specified and tested prototypes.
• Agile development models place an emphasis on the needs of the customer and quickly developing new functionality that meets those needs in an iterative fashion.

Describe software development maturity models [TODO]

• Know that maturity models help software organisations improve the maturity & quality of their software processes by implementing an evolutionary path from ad-hoc, chaotic processes to mature, disciplined software processes.
• Be able to describe the SW-CMM and IDEAL models. [TODO]

Understand the importance of change & configuration management

• Know the three basic components of change control — request control, change control & release control — and how they contribute to security.
• Explain how config mgmt controls the versions of software used in an organisation.

Understand the importance of testing

• Software testing should be designed as part of the development process.
• Testing should be used as a management tool to improve the design, development & production processes.