About Victoria Drake
π΅π»ββοΈπ Hello! I’m Victoria Drake. You’ve discovered my blog, where I write about designing and developing secure software. I also geek out over building high-velocity development teams through stellar processes and programming practices. Here’s more about me.
π I’m a core maintainer and co-author of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Web Security Testing Guide (WSTG). It’s considered to be the foremost open source resource for web application security testing by organizations and security researchers worldwide.
π After working as a freelance software developer and consultant, I saw firsthand how difficult it is to hire competent developers through a traditional resume process. To help, I developed ApplyByAPI.com. It’s a technical candidate filter that works at the very beginning of the hiring process. By requiring applicants to send an API request instead of an email, it acts as an effective initial filter for developer capabilities. All our customers saved weeks of screening time and hired great developers through ApplyByAPI.
π Along with shipping projects, I enjoy writing technical articles for numerous publications. You can find me in The Startup, Better Programming, Towards Data Science, Hacker Noon, and more. I earned the annual Top Contributor award from freeCodeCamp two years in a row in 2018 and 2019. I was also recognized as a Distinguished Author on the DEV.to developer platform. I’m passionate about paying it forward and serve as mentor and code reviewer in multiple communities.
π For fun, I design and code static site generator themes like Introduction for Hugo, as well as a super-nostalgic Visual Studio Code theme inspired by my trips to Tokyo, KabukichΕ.
π I spent a few years traveling the world with just one bag, and now spend most of my time around Washington, DC. I currently serve as Director of Engineering leading the development of enterprise cybersecurity software.
π Folks have asked for my reading recommendations. You can find these on my bookshelf.
π To ask me anything, say hello@victoria.dev.
π Find me in the ‘verse:
