Mary Ann Davidson

Mary Ann Davidson is the chief security officer at Oracle Corp., responsible for security evaluations, assessments and incident handling. She represents Oracle on the board of directors of the Information Technology Information Security Analysis Center (IT-ISAC) and is on the editorial review board of Secure Business Quarterly.

Ms Davidson has a BSME from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She has also served as a commissioned officer in the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps where she was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal.

Synopsis

A Case for Software Assurance

Information technology has become "infrastructure technology," as most sectors of critical infrastructure rest on an IT backbone. Yet IT systems are not yet designed to be as safe, secure and reliable as physical infrastructure. Improving the security worthiness of commercial software requires a significant change in the development and product delivery process across the board. The security worthiness of all commercial software - from all vendors - demands that assurance became a critical focus for both providers and customers of IT.

During Oracle's long history of building and delivering secure software, we continue to invest heavily in building security into each component of the product lifecycle. This is also an "organic" process which is regularly being enhanced to improve overall security practices. Our efforts have evolved from a formal development process to now additionally include secure coding standards, intensive developer training, innovative "bug finding" tools and working with leading vendors to "raise the bar" for all of industry as it pertains to security.