Penetration testers play a vital role in identifying security weaknesses and proactively mitigating cyber threats within an organization. Aspiring pentesters can make a significant impact on their organization's security by performing regular vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks make it essential for organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats. Therefore, there is a high demand for skilled penetration testers in the job market. Pentesters can pursue training and certification programs to develop their skills and demonstrate their expertise to potential employers. A competent penetration tester can significantly improve an organization's security posture and provide valuable insights to help better defend against cyber threats.

‍

Table of Contents

1. Ethical Hacking and the Purple Team approach
2. Find deep-seated security flaws in your products
3. Beginner Courses for Pentesters
4. Make security collaborative with AppSecEngineer

‍

Ethical Hacking and the Purple Team approach

The purple team approach and ethical hacking are two powerful methodologies that can greatly enhance the security of an organization's IT infrastructure. Purple teaming is a collaborative approach to security testing that combines the red team's offensive tactics and the blue team's defensive strategies. In other words, it involves a joint effort between the people responsible for trying to hack into the system and the people responsible for protecting it. Ethical hacking, on the other hand, involves intentionally attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in a system to identify potential weaknesses and improve security.

‍

So, what's the connection between the two? Well, when you combine the purple team approach with ethical hacking, you get a comprehensive and proactive approach to cybersecurity. By having the red and blue teams work together, you can identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your system more quickly and effectively. The red team can test for exploits, while the blue team can patch vulnerabilities in real-time, all while working together to improve overall security.

‍

Find deep-seated security flaws in your products

Penetration testing is a vital part of identifying deep-seated security flaws in products. Automated testing tools can quickly detect common vulnerabilities, but manual testing can be highly effective. According to studies, the most frequently found vulnerabilities during pentesting include injection flaws, authentication and session management issues, and cross-site scripting. It is important to address these issues quickly, as unpatched vulnerabilities can leave products and systems open to exploitation by attackers.

‍

Training is crucial for individuals looking to become proficient pentesters. It can help develop the technical expertise, knowledge, and skills needed to identify vulnerabilities and exploit them ethically. It also ensures pentesters remain up-to-date with the latest attack techniques, tools, and technologies. With the threat of data exploitations, investing in training helps ensure that pentesters are equipped to identify deep-seated security flaws and protect products and systems from such attacks.

‍

Beginner Courses for Pentesters

From beginner courses to the most advanced, AppSecEngineer is complete with comprehensive and hands-on courses to give you the support needed to become a successful pentester. Today we have three beginners courses for you to check out:

1. Injections, XXE, and Insecure Deserialization - As a penetration tester, it’s your job to be well-acquainted with the most common vulnerabilities that an application might have while being developed. In this course, you will have first-hand experience in attacking applications with SSRF, XXE, and more. To balance this, you’ll also learn how to secure applications from all of them. The Injections, XXE, and Insecure Deserialization course is rich with hands-on exercises developed by our team of experts to help you gain all the knowledge and skills needed to successfully keep your applications secured.

2. Attacking and Defending Authentication & Access Control - Understanding the perspective of both the attacker and defender are crucial when performing a penetration test. This course explores both authentication and access control and how to keep cybercriminals from exploiting them. With our years of experience, AppSecEngineer developed this course to give learners first-hand experience in web application security— most specifically, authentication and access control.

3. API Security: Attack and Defense - The popularity of microservices and APIs in web applications has led to the adoption and development of APIs at a massive scale. However, vulnerabilities specific to Web APIs, particularly REST APIs, can be exploited by malicious actors. This API Security course from AppSecEngineer focuses on offensive and defensive techniques for addressing these vulnerabilities using hands-on labs and the OWASP API Security Top 10.

‍

Make security collaborative with AppSecEngineer

Collaborative security is the key to protecting your organization from cyber threats. By fostering a culture of security awareness and providing regular security training to employees, you can create a more effective and resilient security posture. Investing in security training not only helps to protect your organization from potential breaches but also demonstrates a commitment to protecting sensitive data and assets.

‍

AppSecEngineer doesn't simply bring security training to the table. With years of background, our teams developed more than 60 courses that target one of the main components that make entering the information security industry difficult for one individual — experience. All of our courses are rich with hands-on labs that provide the real-world experience that aspiring pentesters, security engineers, and more desperately need. Not only that, but we also have:

• Playgrounds - a sandbox-style environment that helps in writing secure code
• Challenges - Full-stack security challenges to put your skills to the test
• Cloud Sandboxes - Cloud environments hosted by us to run hands-on labs and practice your skills

‍

Remember, security is a team effort, and by working together, we can all help to make our organizations more secure.

‍