Application Security , Events , Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development

The Rise of Memory-Safe Languages in Secure Development

Secure development and memory-safe languages are becoming increasingly critical for addressing long-standing security issues such as buffer overruns and remote code execution vulnerabilities. Mark Ryland, director of Amazon Security, Amazon, emphasized the shift toward using Rust, a high-performance language designed to eliminate such bugs.

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Higher-level languages such as Java and Python are now memory -safe, but for many years, high-performance system-level code was written in C or C++, which notoriously lacked memory safety, Ryland said.

"Rust has the unique capability to both provide super high-performance, low-level capabilities similar to C, but the compiler and the language itself enforces certain conventions that if the programmer follows those conventions, that eliminates a whole class of bugs," he said.

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSA Conference 2024, Ryland also discussed:

• How integrating the Rust programming language into AWS services can enhance security;
• Practical issues and processes involved in enforcing multifactor authentication;
• How AWS uses AI to assist with secure software development.

Ryland works with public policy and public sector regulators and customers to help them understand how AWS builds and operates its highly secure cloud offerings and how they can best leverage AWS cloud to enhance their own cybersecurity. He has more than 32 years of experience in the technology industry across a wide range of leadership roles in information security, software engineering, distributed systems, technical standardization and public policy.