Tech Trek: A Software Engineer's Guide to Code and Beyond

 Introduction: What is Zero Trust? Imagine living in a house where no one is allowed in—even your family—unless they show an ID and prove they belong there, every single time. That’s the essence of Zero Trust Security in the digital world. Zero Trust is not a product—it’s a security mindset : “Never trust, always verify.” This model assumes that no user or device—inside or outside your organization—should be trusted by default. Why Traditional Security Isn’t Enough Anymore Earlier, organizations used a “castle-and-moat” approach: Build a strong perimeter (like firewalls). Trust everything inside the network. But today: Employees work from home. Apps are hosted on cloud platforms. Hackers often enter through stolen credentials or phishing. So once inside, attackers roam freely. That’s where Zero Trust flips the model. Core Principles of Zero Trust Here are the pillars that make Zero Trust work: Pillar Description Verify Explicitly Always authentic...

In today's interconnected digital landscape, securing communication between systems is paramount. While there are numerous authentication mechanisms available, one stands out for its robust security model: Mutual TLS (mTLS). This comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know about mTLS, from basic concepts to implementation details. Introduction to TLS Before diving into mutual TLS, let's first understand what TLS itself is. Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide secure communication over a computer network. It's the successor to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and is widely used for securing web browsing, email, messaging, and other data transfers. Standard TLS provides: Encryption : Protects data from eavesdropping Data integrity : Ensures data hasn't been tampered with during transmission Server authentication : Verifies the identity of the server In standard TLS, only the server proves its identity to t...

Introduction Have you ever wondered how authentication apps like RSA Authenticator generate One-Time Passwords (OTPs) without requiring an internet connection? This fascinating technology is made possible through Time-Based One-Time Passwords (TOTP). In this article, we will explore the mechanics of TOTP, its security features, and why it doesn't rely on the internet at the client-side for generating OTPs. Understanding TOPT 1. TOTP in a Nutshell TOPT, or Time-Based One-Time Password, is a security feature designed to enhance the authentication process. It generates OTPs that are only valid for a short period, typically 30 seconds. TOPT uses a secret key, often shared between the server and the user's device, to generate these OTPs. The central idea is to provide a second factor of authentication, beyond just a static password, to strengthen security. 2. The RSA Authenticator App One popular example of a TOPT implementation is the RSA Authenticator app. This app is commonly use...

 Introduction: In the ever-evolving landscape of modern application development and deployment, the concept of a "Service Mesh" has gained significant traction. As a tech blogger with over 12 years of experience, I'm here to provide a comprehensive update on this crucial topic. In this article, we'll delve into what a Service Mesh is, how it works, and why it has become an indispensable tool for managing complex microservices architectures. What is a Service Mesh? A Service Mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer designed to facilitate communication between the microservices that make up an application. It acts as a transparent, language-agnostic network of interconnected components, providing essential functionalities such as service discovery, load balancing, security, and observability. The primary goal of a Service Mesh is to enhance the reliability, security, and manageability of microservices-based applications. How Does it Work? Now, let's dive deeper into...

Jenkins uses a feature called Jenkins Pipeline which is a collection of jobs that brings the software from version control into the hands of the end-users by using automation tools. They represent multiple Jenkins jobs as one whole workflow in the form of a pipeline. In this blog, I am going to share my knowledge on how can we write multiple Jenkins jobs as a pipeline and it uses two different syntaxes i.e. Declarative and Scripted pipeline and i n our examples, we're going to use the Scripted Pipeline which is following a more imperative programming model built with Groovy. Prerequisite: Code on bitbucket/ GitHub Jenkins Installation Download required plugins to run pipelines like Pipeline, SonarQube Scanner, Check Style, Junit, Git Integration, Maven Integration. Sonar up and running.   Let’s start creating pipeline will do below tasks: Clone  Project from Jenkins Build and run Junit test cases Run Sonar Run Checkstyle Package it as a jar file ...

Jenkins can be used for multiple purposes like whenever any developer commits any code changes to SCM, Jenkins triggers job which can Checkout the code, build it, run JUnit test case, run tools like sonar or checkmarx and if everything works properly then deploy it to some instance. In this tutorial, I’ll share my knowledge on how can we automate our test process by introducing CI like Jenkins. We will configure Jenkins such that it should trigger it whenever any code commits by any developer to SCM, pull out the code from GIT, run maven to build and test the code. Prerequisite: Code upload on GIT (or use this link ) Jenkins up and running. Refer here for installation.    Once your Jenkins is up and running then you will see below screen   Configuration Steps: ·        Install the required plugin. o    Make sure all the required plugins like GIT, Maven are already present o    Goto Manag...