On the sixth day of PtaaS, Cobalt gave to me…six things the Cobalt Core has learned this year. We sat down with our testers and asked them what they have learned this year while being a Core Pentester. From technical skills such as complex attack vectors in Web Applications to soft skills like project management and being collaborative while testing. Read along for the Core’s top six new skills of 2022.
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Cobalt provided me with the Pentester Labs Subscription that helped me continue exploring the source code review domain. I learned about code review in multiple programming languages and also learned some complex yet interesting attack vectors in Web Applications. Apart from this, I did some projects with unique tech stacks. I explored testing SDKs, performed AD assessments, and learned about nice findings from my teammates' reports. -Harsh Bothra
Flexibility is another aspect of Cobalt's work culture. During my time at Cobalt, I developed better time management skills; a to-do list for daily items has helped me prioritize tasks. Meetings aren't the only thing you can schedule on a calendar. You can use your calendar to block your focused work and track deadlines and days when you are going to post your team updates. This will be handy when working on parallel projects. -Shubham Chaskar
I have learned more about application programming interfaces. Some parts of the web pentest included API testing, and that's where I matured myself in Cobalt's engagements. -Saad Nasir
Being a part of the Core has made my decision-making skills strong. As a lead, we have to make many decisions, like assessing the impact of vulnerabilities, guiding the team to prioritize several areas during testing, or interacting with a customer to provide them with great reports and the best outputs. As a Cobalt Core Pentester, I feel that I make really confident and good decisions while taking into account multiple ideas and perspectives. This also allows me to be creative and analytical with my decisions while always providing the best outcome in the shortest time. -Goonjeta
Recently fuzzing workshops were conducted by Core members which were very insightful, and I learned many skills through these workshops. Cobalt comes out with these amazing blog posts by different Core Pentesters with new technical topics every time. I always go through all of them and try to learn the things that are new to me. Learning different skills is just one of the many perks of being a Cobalt Core member 😊 -Herane
Client handling is key for any project's success. I have learned a lot from Leads on my projects, there are too many to name, but the way they have handled clients in terms of requirements has been above and beyond expectations. Working with Leads has taught me how to manage a situation with clients on the ongoing client requirements. It's just out of the box. -Nilesh Sapariya
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As 2022 wraps up, we at Cobalt are so proud of all our Core Pentesters and what they have accomplished. We strive to be a community full of collaborative engagements and opportunities for one to gain new skills in pentesting. Our Core Pentesters exemplify Cobalt's Core values daily, and we can't wait to see what the new year will bring us.
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