An Old Noob #4 - Cloud Resume Challenge, Security Edition
Tags: beginners, webdev, aws, cloud
Published: 2022-04-18 13:23:55

Thanks again for taking a few minutes to read about my journey through the [Cloud Resume Challenge](https://cloudresumechallenge.dev/docs/the-challenge/). I'm quite pleased with the current status of my project, but as i researched the individual deliverables i noticed a trend: if security was mentioned, it was in passing with little accompanying detail.  

As i mentioned in [my last post](https://dev.to/zwilson/an-old-noob-3-3egh), security is kinda my thing. And i'm not saying there's a shortage of subject matter regarding cloud security concepts, but as a challenge designed to inspire us to get our feet wet with cloud services i had hoped to see more about security practices aimed at the beginner level, learning the how and why of security of the individual components that make up the whole. Fortunately Matthew Sechrist offers this [comprehensive write-up](https://blog.matthewsechrist.cloud/10-ways-to-complete-the-cloud-resume-challenge-as-secure-as-possible) describing methods for securing the specific resources required to complete the Cloud Resume Challenge. Some of these may seem overkill for a simple resume site, but i appreciate his approach and admire his dedication to security. I'm also very grateful for his suggestions as they were integral in my ability to achieve the following scores for my resume site:

[My score on Mozilla Observatory](https://observatory.mozilla.org/analyze/zjgrey.net)

[My score on Security Headers](https://securityheaders.com/?q=zjgrey.net&followRedirects=on)

Which brings me to an announcement, one which i'm sure will delight my friends and family...

![cartoon applause](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/e5n111e77dl1j9n2vq71.gif)

I proudly introduce the completion of phase one of my Cloud Resume Challenge project, [my cloud resume](https://zjgrey.net/resume.html).  

It has really been a fun and challenging journey so far, and i look forward to delving further into Terraform to automate the back end and attaining my ACP (to start). I've also got some future ideas for the site, experimenting with Simple Email Service, updating the existing visit counter to monitor unique visits instead of page loads, adding Cloudfront invalidations to my existing front end CD process... you know, spit & polish.  

My word of advice for those who choose to tackle this challenge, especially with AWS, is to look for the most updated research material available.  More than once i found aged answers to obstacles which only led me in a direction no longer necessary/applicable. AWS continues to update their services, some of which directly affect how one can complete this challenge - [Lambda Function URLs](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/announcing-aws-lambda-function-urls-built-in-https-endpoints-for-single-function-microservices/), for example. 

I'm really glad i undertook this challenge and recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about cloud services and web development.  I look forward to completing my remaining steps for this challenge, implementing further improvements and moving forward to the next cloud challenge.