The new SANS Institute exams aimed at IT coders is another attempt by the industry to enhance secure IT coding skills in programmers. The exam is intended to give companies a way to measure the security savvy of programmers, plus a way to measure the security steps vendor programmers take. It's been touted as a good way to understand where gaps may exist. However, it's not a fail-safe, say some experts. Companies still need to understand that human error is an ever-present exposure.

The SANS exams cost $400 and cover the following language areas: C/C++, Java/J2EE, Perl/PHP and .Net/ASP. For more information on exam locations, visit the SANS Institute website.