A primary source of information security problems is often an excessively complex software design that cannot be easily or correctly implemented, maintained nor audited. It is therefore important to establish risk-based information security requirements that can be converted into information security specifications that can be used by programmers to develop security-relevant code. This paper presents a risk-based approach to formalise information security requirements for software development. Based on a formal, structured risk management model, it focuses on how to establish information security requirements to ensure the protection of the information assets implicated. In this way it hopes to provide some educational guidelines on how risk assessment can be incorporated in the education of software developers.