Apply HN: Hacksplaining – what every web developer needs to know about security
There's a gap in the market for online security training aimed at developers. Most training companies focus on security awareness for regular employees (making sure your receptionist doesn't click on phishing emails) or infosec training for security professionals (learning how to perform penetration tests). Developers have to make do with books, blog posts, and online videos.
We've taken the most common security vulnerabilities and put together a series of interactive exercises that ask a developer to put themselves in the shoes of a hacker. Next, we show how to protect against these vulnerabilities with real code samples. Finally, we test developers on what they've learnt.
The beta launched a few weeks ago and the feedback has been amazing. We hit the front page of reddit (300,000+ page views in one day) and have more than 13,000 sign-ups so far. Our users are consistently telling us the same thing: they have always worried there is a gap in their security knowledge but have generally been too embarrassed to bring it up to their boss.
Getting into YC will help us grow the site into a real product. We have a couple of big security firms interested in working with us and a lot of enquiries about the premium version (which will allow employers to invite and track their employees' progress through the course). There's clearly an appetite for the product, and we want to build a business out of it!
If you have any questions or feedback, we'd love to hear from you. :-)