What Makes Security Journey Hands-On Training Different?

When you search the internet for 'application security training,' you'll get a wide variety of results that cover how to train, what to train, and who to train – there's no shortage of advice or vendors. 

But how do you know who to trust? 

At Security Journey, we help organizations worldwide train their developers and other roles in the SDLC on the most crucial application security topics. We've found that developers thrive on hands-on training. 

In this article, we'll review what makes Security Journey different from other hands-on training platforms. 

What Makes Security Journey Hands-On Training Different 

Video lessons can be great for foundational and non-developer training, but developers require hands-on training to implement their knowledge. However, before selecting a vendor for your organization's hands-on secure coding training, it's essential to understand your specific training needs.  

Let's discuss some crucial factors that differentiate hands-on secure coding training and how to assess potential training vendors. 

Security Journey Offers Multiple Types of Hands-On Lessons 

What does hands-on training mean? There are different ways for learners to practice their skills hands-on. Choosing the right type of hands-on lessons is essential to promote learning reinforcement. 

Some training providers offer limited hands-on exercises where the learner is only asked to identify insecure code. While this may be useful for certain secure coding training concepts, other types of hands-on lessons can be more effective. 

Security Journey's platform has different types of hands-on activities: 

• Break/Fix Lessons- These lessons cover both offensive and defensive techniques for developers to understand how to identify and fix vulnerable code. Through real-world development experiences, developers can practice breaking, fixing, and testing code within a secure application sandbox.  
• Command-Line Interface - Hands-on tutorials delivered in a familiar command-line interface environment. These lessons help developers build and strengthen security strategies for configuring and administrating tools like Docker and Kubernetes. 
• Code Fix Exercises - Developers learn how to identify and resolve vulnerabilities within their code  

When evaluating secure coding training vendors, it's important to ask to see the types of hands-on lessons available and be sure there is breadth and depth of content to support your program 

Security Journey Is More Engaging 

It's common to see vendors claim that they offer hands-on lessons, but what do they really do?  

Some top application security training vendors use multiple-choice questions to assess code, but we believe this approach is ineffective for learning.  

At Security Journey, we take a different approach. Every hands-on lesson we offer has an application sandbox allowing developers to practice what they have learned. Learners can write code and test their understanding in a simulated environment, replicating their daily routines. 

When evaluating secure coding training vendors, it's important to ask to see the hands-on lessons and how they work during the product demo. 

Security Journey Offers Unparalleled Learner Support 

Encouraging learners to take on challenges is essential to improve their knowledge and skills. However, it's equally crucial to support learners when they face obstacles.  

Unlike other vendors who display the correct answer immediately after the learner selects the wrong one, we encourage learners to work through the problems and find the correct answer independently.  

At Security Journey, we don't believe in providing the correct answers early in the assessment process. We want our learners to think critically, learn from their mistakes, and grow their knowledge organically. 

To assist learners, we offer the following resources: 

• Hints - As learners progress through the hands-on lessons, they can access hints that guide them through challenging parts. However, using these hints will result in a deduction of points from their leaderboard. 
• Knowledge Base Articles - Our platform's administrators and learners can access a comprehensive knowledge base that contains information for administering the platform and helping learners with their lessons. 
• Live Chat - Security Journey provides a live chat during office hours. Our experts are available to answer questions and help learners work through their lessons. 

When evaluating secure coding training vendors, it's important to ask about the built-in support for program admins and learners. 

Security Journey Offers a Wide Variety of Languages 

If a secure coding vendor has the best hands-on lessons, is it beneficial if they don't cover the languages, frameworks, or technologies your developers work in? 

Many popular secure coding training vendors talk about their hands-on lessons and capabilities, but those are only offered in a few languages. This means that your learners can access different types of lessons depending on their language. 

At Security Journey, we aim to support all of your SDLC by offering over 800 lessons across 40 languages, frameworks, and technologies. Learners can choose their lesson and then select the language they want to work in. 

When evaluating secure coding training vendors, it's important to ask what languages, frameworks, and technologies are supported.  

Learn More About Our Training Library 

Time To Get Hands-On When Choosing Your Secure Coding Training Vendor 

Choosing the right secure coding training vendor involves a lot of factors to consider. However, this article aims to help you understand more about hands-on training.  

If you need more resources, our Checklist for Evaluating Secure Coding Training Platforms can assist you in determining whether the training is effective in improving your developers' secure coding skills. This will help reduce vulnerabilities and associated costs, leading to a faster development process.