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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Software Security by University of Maryland, College Park

4.6
stars
1,589 ratings

About the Course

This course we will explore the foundations of software security. We will consider important software vulnerabilities and attacks that exploit them -- such as buffer overflows, SQL injection, and session hijacking -- and we will consider defenses that prevent or mitigate these attacks, including advanced testing and program analysis techniques. Importantly, we take a "build security in" mentality, considering techniques at each phase of the development cycle that can be used to strengthen the security of software systems. Successful learners in this course typically have completed sophomore/junior-level undergraduate work in a technical field, have some familiarity with programming, ideally in C/C++ and one other "managed" program language (like ML or Java), and have prior exposure to algorithms. Students not familiar with these languages but with others can improve their skills through online web tutorials....

Top reviews

GB

May 26, 2019

Was prepared and presented in a very special and superb way. I am glad I took and completed it. Thanks to my tutor Michael Hicks and special appreciation to coursera for making this possible for me.

VJ

Jul 9, 2016

Really useful course. I would highly recommend it to any person interested in beginning with Software security. Some SW basic skills are needed to follow the course and take profit of the lessons.

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1 - 25 of 355 Reviews for Software Security

By Dmitry T

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May 9, 2016

The course of this kind was extremely needed, still in it's current state it contains lots of inaccuracies in lectures and quizes. I hope they will be fixed up to the future sessions.

By Rajitha A M

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Jun 22, 2021

Very useful course to update the current knowlege and to learn new technologies and theoretical facts. Also, identified how software security should be combined with software development.

By Debasish R C

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Jun 3, 2020

There is a mandatory project that requires one to set up a virtual machine to work with. The system is old, all online resources have already been taken down and do not work with current VirtualBox. The eth0 device is never detected. No one will answer your questions. The forums are useless and the mentors have abandoned the course. So, don't waste your money on it.

By George J B

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May 27, 2019

Was prepared and presented in a very special and superb way. I am glad I took and completed it. Thanks to my tutor Michael Hicks and special appreciation to coursera for making this possible for me.

By Pablo A R

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Nov 20, 2016

Content is really valuable and actionable with a specific comeback for the student in terms of secure development, security and how to understand the origin of exploits and other cyber attacks

By Shannon W

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Dec 26, 2016

Personally, even though the recommend time for each week was 2-4 hours. I easily spent 20 hours each week, taking detailed notes on the lectures and following up with the supplemental materials. I absolutely feel that the investment of time was worth it, and even if you only invest the 2-4 recommended hours per week, the $49 course fee is nothing compared to the value of the knowledge that you will gain. I estimate at 2-4 hours/week the course content is worth $800+, and if you follow up with all of the supplemental material, the course is (IMAO) worth $2400+, even in terms of having the unlimited information on the internet organized for you. (I once had to make a decision whether or not to pay $7,000 for Siebel training...)

By Roberto T D

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Mar 21, 2019

First of all, sorry for my english. I'm very glad to have participate in this course. I'm learned so many new things! And I think it's really a very interesting area. I'm mostly a developer, although last years I've been learning many aspects related to Cybersecurity, ethical hacking and pentesting (I'm CompTIA Security + and CEH, but I'm a newbie), and curiously (and sadly) I hadn't ever heard about secure software developing techniques explained here in almost 20 years of career. So, I'm very proud to know them now. Congratulations! It has been tough for me on certain points, but I've enjoyed it very much!!

By Dasarapalli R R

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Mar 19, 2020

Got the best theoretical introduction for the basic of software security, One of the best courses out there, Professor explains really good about the importance of each aspect covered in this course, Gotta admit the projects were a bit harder than expected but learnt a lot from this course and helped in selecting which area i wanna have expertise in.

By Ken V H N

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Oct 19, 2016

Week 5 about program analysis and is very interesting and many concepts are new to me. This is also a very well structured course. I had a great time studying it. Thanks, Mike.

By Tim C

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Sep 17, 2017

I raise my hat to the instructor for his knowledge and merits.

HOWEVER

The way this course is structured totally SUCKS wind!

The instructor claims that in order to do well in the classy you are not require to write C code but to understand it . Guess what? in order to understand C code you have to have studied it and used it so the argument about "you don't have to write C code to pass the course" is faulty. In fact, I had a heck of the time passing the course and ended up resenting it.

Tests are set to fail students rather then educate and empower them.

One would expect to find lectures and material to provide enough info to pass the tests but it's NOT the case here. Often you will have to research the subject elsewhere as info given though the course is not enough.

By hmka

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Sep 16, 2018

The course is impressively well-structured and organised. When I came to know about MIT's OCW's Computer Security course, I was eagerly hoping it gets included in as a Mooc. After taking this course, I believe it's on the same par.

Software Security is intended for a more advanced audience compared to usable security. Mainly, those who have some modest experience with programming and are aiming to apply security designs and implementations to their code. Moreover, it gives you a good idea, backed up with labs, about security in domains like web application, low-level systems, penetration testing, etc, good enough for someone to choose which one to pursue a career in.

By Daniel S

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Dec 13, 2020

Great course! I learned a lot in it, gives a good overview about software security and many hints how to proceed further. Also the practical tasks and tests are great -> they are not so easy to pass as in some other Coursera courses, you really have to understand the topic and can't cheat easily. Hence, when you pass it you can be sure it is worth something.

By SYEDTHAQI U R S

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Jun 21, 2021

in a few places, i didnt understand a few things. mostly it was a good one which helped me learn a lot of new things...for a beginner like me, this course is one of the best things to start...overall had a great experience on learning.

By Yuval G

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Oct 8, 2016

I found this course very effective, i liked it very much. it provides an overview of all the major topics of Software Security and more important, gives the knowledge and tools to dive deeply into it by yourself using several grate things this course provides: Reading recommendations before each lesson, VM projects and interesting interviews with experts on each field.

The homework were challenging enough and covered pretty much all the topics, and the videos were in high quality and well organized.

I strongly recommend this course to any Software developer

By John B

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May 31, 2019

I found this course really insightful. I have wanted to understand the source of software vulnerabilities and the course met that objective well. I particularly liked how it addressed the whole software development cycle from requirements - design - implementation - test.

I did find it quite difficult, having a dated and somewhat limited coding background. However, the exercises can be completed successfully if you are prepared to put in some extra work to understand some of the essentials of the C programming language.

By Gavin L

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Oct 27, 2016

Finished it in 7 days because it was so interesting. Registered last Thursday, finished today.

It was a great course, the first three weeks was the most enjoyable. I personally think week 5 was the most strenuous, but cruised through it nevertheless.

Week 3, 4, and 6 were easy.

Great course. Would recommend. Sadly, there aren't many courses covering the same topic on a deeper level on the internet.

By Nikolaos D

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Oct 16, 2016

A highly recommended course, where Professor Hicks and his coworkers have done a terrific job in assembling and organizing teaching material related to software security, as well as presented it in a very thorough, interesting and comprehensive manner. It fully reached up to my expectations, and I would like to thank & congratulate all the contributors of the course. Well done, everyone!

By José A Q

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May 3, 2020

Excelente curso. Verdaderamente recomendable para aquellos desarrolladores que quieran tener una introducción práctica al mundo de la ciberseguridad. Perfecta combinación de teoría y ejercicios. Dado que el curso se hizo en 2014, convendría que revisaran el contenido porque pueden haber aparecido nuevas amenazas, técnicas o herramientas que merezca la pena incluir en el curso.

By Timo S

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Aug 1, 2017

I liked the lectures - there are informative and give good overview of such a wide area.

My personal complains are about homeworks - specially HW1 which has big disconnect between lectures and the questions it asked; specifically, no lecture covered pointer arithmetics, and it wasnt on slides; no idea why it was skipped; but it made this task challenging, because i didn't know what to ask or what to google; But it's very simple when you see the process 1st time; just simple example or test practice could make it more enjoyable;

By Francesco B

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Oct 20, 2016

The first three weeks are really interesting. The 4th and 5th are boring: it explains too many arguments in givin just hint to many of them. Many videos are too long and there are too many.

In my opinion they should focus on fewer things and explain them in ore details. Many times the lecture becomes just a list.

By Anish B

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Sep 5, 2019

More practical based, with updated systems could have been helpful...

By Rahul R

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Aug 19, 2016

This course can only be taken who have good knowledge in programming.Although there is a assessment quiz at the start of the course It needs to kept in mind that since this course is part of specialization,most people would take it and not all of them are programmers.This course needs a revamp to suit all sorts of security enthusiasts.

By Peter S

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Jul 2, 2016

This course needs too much C/C++ knowledge and the test are far too code oriented. You have to give textual answers without having enough help for memory calculation.

By Ivan P

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Nov 29, 2021

I wanted to get to know about sortware (and so on) security for a long time. And this course is one the best ones I could find. This complicated field is explained in a easy way to understand. Complicated things are understandable (which is important!) for beginners. I am very thankful to everybody who took a part of making the course. I recommend passing it for quick coming into the field.

By Tarun J C

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Mar 13, 2020

Well structured course with great projects and labs that gave me a holistic understanding of the basics of software security. In spite of having no job experience in the world of Cybersecurity, I did not face any difficulty relating to any of the topics discussed in this course and I believe that speaks to its ability to cater to learners of all experience levels.