8 ways to fast-track your AppSec career

Skill training is an arduous process and needs continuous brainstorming from time to time. Once you stop learning, you may fall behind your peers. For uninterrupted upliftment in your AppSec career, you must stay updated with every relevant news. Here are a few free resources for rich information:

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8 Free Resources to Boost Your Career as a Security Engineer

It would help to stay updated with the latest trends to fast-track your application security career. Let us explore these resources that may help you skyrocket success in your application security career. 

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1. Learn with OWASP Projects

The Open Web Application Security Project, or OWASP, is committed to improving software security globally. The OWASP projects are open source and aid in figuring out the vision and roadmap to achieve them. These projects are reliable sources of knowledge for Application developers, Software architects, Information Security Authors, and individuals who contribute to the entire professional community. 

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Software and application security without OWASP is meaningless. It is significant for those who are involved in the creation, development, and testing of software. Using OWASP can secure the applications against cyber attacks and provides strong encryption, lessen the rate of operation failures, and much more. 

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Some of our chosen projects that you can start learning with to ace your application security career:

WebGoat

It helps practice security exploits & testing on a deliberately vulnerable app.

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Cheat Sheet

It provides access to 65 highly detailed documents on specific AppSec topics.

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OWASP ZAP

This is a leading open-source dynamic security testing (DAST) tool.

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2. Stay Up-to-Date on Current Events in Security

One needs to keep an eye on the latest updates to learn the data threats and cyber security risks. The latest news on software security is always helpful in providing top-notch technical updates. It will also enrich your level of knowledge on new security loopholes that may happen. Prior knowledge of several possible security exploits can prepare you to protect your application from attacks. 

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Various online free resources can help you learn the essentials of website software security. Stay updated with Hacker News at https://news.ycombinator.com/ and Dark Reading. 

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Hacker News will help you with many intellectual debates, technological news, and informative snippets to enhance your knowledge. On the other hand, Dark Reading offers informative blogs on cybersecurity, such as potential threats, and various tools to curb their progress.

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3. Publish What You Learn or Read about Online

One of the best ways to learn well what you have studied or acquired is by spreading it to help others. AppSec Training Library is a reservoir of AppSec study materials where you get lots of information regarding application security, cloud security, and DevSecOps. 

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If you want to engage with others from the AppSec community, you can start your own blog, or discuss the latest trends on forums and platforms like Quora, Reddit, etc.

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4. Learn with Free Workshops & Cloud Resources

Cloud computing and cloud security are among the most popular trends in the tech universe. With most companies moving to the cloud for data storage and better scalability, it also poses a big issue. 68% of firms say cloud account takeovers pose a severe security concern, and 51% say phishing is the most common way attackers obtain cloud credentials. 

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If you're learning cloud security (which you should), all the major cloud providers offer tons of free learning resources & workshops. Use these to refresh or boost your skills in specific cloud-related topics.

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5. Learn to Code

Software security engineers need not learn to code. But a prolific security engineer would have some knowledge of coding too. This helps them communicate and address problems better with the developers. In return, the developers can make substantial alterations and provide remedies for application vulnerabilities. 

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6. Take Part in Competitions

Participating in competitions will help you gain more confidence in the learned topics. Based on your acquired score, you can assess your level of expertise and have real-life experience. 

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There are many online competition sites where you can participate, meet with new people, discuss, and make further progress. CTF challenge is one of them which lets the participants take part in security-themed challenges. 

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7. Do Some Bug-Bounty Hunting

One of the fastest ways to progress in your security engineering aspiration is to become a successful bug-bounty hunter. Last year, Microsoft awarded $13.7 million to 335 researchers through a Microsoft Bug Bounty Program program. This year, an anonymous researcher paid a single most considerable bounty price of $2 lakh for his contribution to Hyper-V. You can also become a bug-bounty hunter and contribute your skills in cloud security. 

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8. Get Hands-on Training with AppSecEngineer

If you want in-depth application security knowledge, AppSecEngineer platform has as many as 50 courses and offers more than 600 hands-on labs to hone the skill better. 

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Learn AWS security and its dynamic range of security services, protocols, and measures to prevent data loss from the application. 

Become a DevSecOps engineer and implement the security and automation process at every stage of the software development lifecycle. 

No learning on software security will be complete if you do not know about threat modeling. 

Moreover, you can also develop your skills on Kubernetes security only on AppSec's training library. 

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Visit appsecengineer.com & get your FREE account to start learning today.

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