✳ Learning path / 6 lessons
Security assessment, forensics, and software assurance
Six lessons cover SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 audit boundaries, penetration testing rules of engagement, SAST, DAST, IAST, and fuzzing pipelines, digital forensics order of volatility, disaster recovery sites and RAID math, and secure SDLC and database defense.
Work through the lessons in order to build a complete engineering mental model, or jump straight to the topic you are designing or reviewing today.
01Security audits, SOC 1 / 2 / 3 reports, and Type 1 vs Type 2 evidence
Third-party assurance relies on independent audits. Master internal vs external audits, AICPA SOC 1 (financial ICFR), SOC 2 (Trust Services Criteria), and SOC 3 (public seal), and Type 1 (point-in-time design) vs Type 2 (period operating effectiveness).
Penetration testing, Rules of Engagement, and vulnerability validation
Vulnerability scans find potential weaknesses; penetration tests safely chain and exploit them under written authorization. Master NIST SP 800-115 phases, Black/Gray/White-box testing, Rules of Engagement (RoE), and Red/Blue/Purple teaming.
Software testing: SAST, DAST, IAST, SCA, fuzzing, and coverage math
Continuous software verification combines Static (SAST), Dynamic (DAST), Interactive (IAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and Fuzzing (mutation vs generation). Master code coverage math (statement vs branch coverage) and synthetic monitoring.
Digital forensics: order of volatility, chain of custody, and legal evidence
Forensic investigations preserve admissible truth. Master RFC 3227 Order of Volatility (CPU/RAM before disk), forensic disk imaging (write blockers + cryptographic hashes), Chain of Custody logs, and Best/Real/Documentary/Testimonial evidence rules.
Continuity operations: recovery sites, backup strategies, RAID, and DR testing
Recovery sites trade ongoing cost against activation speed. Full, differential, and incremental backups balance backup window duration against restoration complexity. RAID levels protect against disk failure, and five disaster recovery test levels validate restoration procedures.
Software assurance: SDLC models, database integrity, and classic application attacks
Security integrated at every SDLC phase prevents structural flaws. Database engines enforce ACID properties and prevent inference and aggregation leaks, while parameterized queries, context-aware encoding, and synchronization eliminate injection, XSS, buffer overflow, and TOCTOU vulnerabilities.
Test your engineering judgment
Every lesson closes with a 4-choice scenario check modeled on real architectural trade-offs. Ready for full hands-on simulations or certification drills?
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