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Ada is a language that is specifically for writing secure code.

Correction, Ada is a language specifically for writing correct code. Correct is only a subset of secure.

Basically all modern languages with strict type systems do better than C or C++ when it comes to security. Anything JVM based can't be buffer overflowed or double-free/use-after-free exploited, for instance.

Now if you go with a weakly typed language like Javascript there are a whole other class of bugs that can bite you:

https://medium.com/@octskyward/type-safety-and-rngs-40e3ec71...

... so don't use those.

Rust, for the former, Cryptol for the latter (just one caveat: written by the NSA/influenced people).

Cryptol was written by Galois not the NSA. It was written for the NSA.

Hey, thanks a lot for recommending rust. Since your comment, I've investigated it, and it's exactly what I'm looking for!

C is a great replacement for C. No, I don't mean that as a joke. Using C as a low level language and proving it correct via a higher level language gives you the performance of C without the security problems: http://sel4.systems/