Articles tagged developer
Announcing the New Okta Developer Certification
Over the past few months, I have been working on a side project that I am really excited about. If you know me well, you probably know I enjoy using my side projects to help other teams meet their goals (and if you don’t, I am a Senior Security H@X0R at Okta. Check out my blog posts here.) So, when the Okta certification team asked me to help them build a cool developer certification experience,...
A Developer Guide to Reporting Vulnerabilities
Many of us are not familiar with vulnerability reporting and how it is different from reporting a regular bug. Frequently, I’ve seen people report vulnerabilities or potential security issues incorrectly. A public bug tracker or Stack Overflow is NOT the right tool; developers need to handle vulnerabilities differently and should not disclose them until the project/vendor fixes them. In this post, you will learn basics about vulnerabilities, how they relate to Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures...
Why CLIs Suck (and GUIs are Better)
Posing this question on Twitter, I was amazed at the amount of responses it got: Check the thread out here. There were definitely some great points from both sides, but I wanted to explore my take on the choice in more depth. For clarity, GUIs are Graphic User Interfaces, and CLIs are Command Line Interfaces. Let’s start with: WHY COMMAND LINE INTERFACES SUCK (Don’t worry, it’s not that dramatic - just using a catchy title!...
Tech at the Edge of the World: Offline Applications
In January of 2020, I was fortunate enough to join a 16 day voyage to Antarctica, and speak at a tech mastermind conference called AntarctiConf. Going to see the seventh continent was one of the coolest experiences of my life, and to top it all off I was joined by other incredible like-minded tech geeks and coders! I highly recommend adding Antartica to your travel bucket list as well, it is such a life-changing place...
6 Simple but Powerful Habits for Effective Developers
What a year it has been! As I reflect on all I have learned in programming this year, there are a few exciting standouts that I wanted to share with you. By adjusting our thinking we can adopt better habits, therefore kind of setting up our own “action automation”. When you consider your New Year’s Resolutions as a software engineer, try a few of these suggestions out below. You might be surprised how much the...
Three Developer Tools I'm Thankful For
What a year it has been! As I consider what this holiday season means to me, I am reminded of how insanely fortunate I am to be part of Okta. Before I go any further, I absolutely must give a shout-out to my fantastic teammates Randall, Lee, Aaron, Micah, Matt, Brian and David along with our fabulous supporting crew Brent, Lindsay, Krishna and Alyssa. Surrounding yourself with high caliber people makes all the difference in...
Okta Developer Office Hours Q&A - September 2019 Edition
On September 19, 2019, we held our first Okta Developer office hours. Our goal was to host a live Q&A with developers that use Okta. Over 150 developers attended! We streamed the session live on YouTube, so you can watch it below if you like. We received around 60 questions during our live-stream and did not get a chance to answer them all. After close examination, we determined that many questions overlapped and ended up...
Build a Secure Node.js App with SQL Server
I am a long-time relational database nerd, specifically SQL Server. At times in my career, I’ve focused on database design, deployments, migrations, administration, query optimization, and carefully crafting stored procedures, triggers, and views. I’ve written applications on top of SQL Server using Visual Basic, “Classic” ASP, ASP.NET, and, in recent years, Node.js. Yes, it’s true. You can build Node.js applications with SQL Server! In this tutorial, you will learn the basics of creating a Node.js...
If It Ain't TypeScript It Ain't Sexy
A few years ago I got “Jeep fever.” I began daydreaming about owning a Jeep, driving around with the top down, and going on trips into the mountains. That’s when it happened. Everywhere I went, I saw Jeeps. I passed countless Jeeps on the road. There were Jeeps in every parking lot. Practically everyone had a Jeep but me. Where did all these Jeeps come from?! Logically, I had to assume there was relatively the...
What's New in JavaScript for 2019
For the last several years, JavaScript has been evolving on a steady cadence with new language features. If you’re curious to see what’s in store for the next version of JavaScript, this post is for you! Before we talk about the latest features, it’s important to understand how new ideas become part of the JavaScript language. The Process for New JavaScript Language Features In a nutshell, the language specification that drives JavaScript is called ECMAScript....
Learn JavaScript in 2019
There’s never been a better time to be a programmer. Technology isn’t slowing down. Neither will the demand for innovative solutions to solve new challenges or take advantage of new opportunities. The key differentiation in the marketplace is often the one with the better technology. And companies are willing to pay big bucks for it. Not only are there new challenges and opportunities, but there are also better systems today to support programmers. Languages, code...
Three Developer Tools I'm Thankful For
I ❤️ Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite holidays. I love it because it’s a time of reflection and gratitude. As an open source developer, I have a lot to be thankful for. Many of the tools I use are created by developers from around the world, and I get to use them for free! I’m also very thankful for my awesome job at @oktadev. I get to write example apps with open source software,...
Announcing PassProtect - Proactive Web Security
If you’re reading this article you probably care about web security. You probably use a password manager to manage your passwords, you’ve probably got multi-factor authentication setup for all of your services, and you’re probably already subscribed to Have I Been Pwned? so you’re alerted when one of your logins have been involved in a data breach. But you’re not most people. Most web users are completely disconnected from the incredible advancements that have been...
Simple Multi-Factor Authentication in Node
If you’re building a web application, chances are you’re going to want to serve different content depending on the user. Authenticating users can be complex for many reasons. The most straightforward route is to allow users to sign in with a username and password. The problem with this is, no matter how strongly you hash passwords, there’s no stopping someone from guessing that your user’s password is hunter2, letmein, or correct horse battery staple. Maybe...
Multi-Factor Authentication: 4 Challenges Faced by Developers
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the most reliable way to ensure the security of your users’ PII (personally identifiable information), and with Okta it’s easier than ever to implement in your application! Why is MFA super-secure? It’s simple: While a user may have a terrible password, many additional factors are inherently immutable. Some common second factors of authentication include a text message with a one-time use code, called SMS verification, a code that refreshes regularly in...
A Developer's Guide To Docker - Docker Compose
Good developers care as much about efficiency as they do about writing clean code. Containerization can add efficiency to both your workflow and your application, and has thus become all the rage among modern dev. And, as a good developer, you know that manually creating containers from images using docker run ... or even using the Dockerfile to create containers is less than ideal. How would you like to have one command that tells Docker...
A Developer's Guide To Docker - The Dockerfile
Creating a consistent environment for development, testing, staging, and production is one of the big benefits of using containers. Not only do containers make the entire environment portable, they remove environment-specific problems, like, “Why does it work in test, but not in production?” Usually, it’s a package or framework that’s installed on the test machine that is not on the production server. Containers carry all those dependencies with them, minimizing the possibility for those problems....
A Developer's Guide To Docker - A Gentle Introduction
It works on my machine. We’ve all heard it. Most of us have said it. It’s been impossible to get around it… until now. Not only can adding Docker to your development environment solve that issue, but it can make it drop-dead simple to onboard new developers, keep a team working forward and allow everyone on the team use their desired tools! Why Containers? “Aren’t containers just lightweight Virtual Machines?” That’s the question I get...