Threat Modeling by John Steven

The presentation

How will attackers break your web application? How much security testing is enough? Do I have to worry about insiders? Threat modeling, applied with a risk management approach can answer both of these questions if done correctly. This talk will present advanced threat modeling step-wise through examples and exercises using the Java EE platform and focusing on authentication, authorization, and session management. Participants will learn, through interactive exercise on real software architectures, how to use diagramming techniques to explicitly document threats their applications face, identify how assets worth protecting manifest themselves within the system, and enumerate the attack vectors these threats take advantage of. Participants will then engage in secure design activities, learning how to use the threat model to specify compensating controls for specified attack vectors. Finally, we'll discuss how the model can drive security testing and validate an application resists specified attack.

The speaker

John Steven, Senior Director, Advanced Technology Consulting Cigital, brings to this newly-created division of the company both depth and breadth in software security. His experience includes research in static code analysis and hands-on architecture and implementation of high-performance, scalable Java EE systems. John has provided security consulting services to a broad variety of commercial clients including two of the largest trading platforms in the world and has advised America's largest internet provider in the Midwest on security and forensics. John led the development of Cigital's architectural analysis methodology and its approach to deploying enterprise software security frameworks. He has demonstrated success in building Cigital's intellectual property for providing cutting-edge security. He brings this experience and a track record of effective strategic innovation to clients seeking to change, whether to adopt more cutting-edge approaches, or to solidify ROI. John currently chairs the SD Best Practices security track and co-edits the building security in department of IEEE's Security and Privacy magazine. John has served on numerous conference panels regarding software security, wireless security and Java EE system development. He holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University.