SAFECode Welcomes Howard Schmidt

Today, SAFECode announced the appointment of Howard Schmidt as its new Executive Director. At a time when Cybersecurity has become a top priority for governments in the US and around the world, Howard’s experience and reputation will help SAFECode be more effective in promoting proven software assurance practices across the industry and with governments across the world.

SAFECode has received praises among the software assurance community for its technical reports describing practices that have proven to be effective among its members. Publishing these reports contributes to improving software assurance in two ways:

  1. It helps software development organizations across the industry understand the steps they need to take to develop more secure products
  2. It helps customers and governments understand the processes vendors are putting in place to deliver product security.

Having Howard guide and represent SAFECode will help promote these software assurance practices to a broader audience and ultimately raise the level of software assurance across the industry.

Welcome Howard! I am looking forward to this new collaboration.

About the Author: Eric Baize

Throughout his career, Eric Baize has been passionate about building security and privacy into systems and technology from design to deployment. He currently leads Dell EMC’s Product Security Office and serves as Chairman of SAFECode, an industry-led non-profit organization dedicated to advancing software and supply chain security best practices. At Dell EMC, Eric leads the team that sets the standards and practices for all aspects of product security for the product portfolio: Vulnerability response, secure development, consistent security architecture, and code integrity. Eric joined Dell through its combination with EMC where he built EMC’s highly successful product security program from the ground up and was a founding member of the leadership team that drove EMC’s acquisition of RSA Security in 2006. He later led RSA’s strategy for cloud and virtualization. Prior to joining EMC in 2002, Eric held various positions for Groupe Bull in Europe and in the US. Eric has been a member of the SAFECode Board of Directors since the organization was founded in 2007 and also serves on the BSIMM Board of Advisors. He holds multiple U.S. patents, has authored international security standards, is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has been quoted in leading print and online news media. Eric holds a Masters of Engineering degree in Computer Science from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne, France and is a Certified Information Security Manager. Follow Eric Baize on Twitter: @ericbaize