Thursday, December 16, 2021

Top 3 Spring Security Books and Courses to Learn in 2024 - Best of Lot

Spring Security is one of the big projects under the Spring framework umbrella, which addresses the security requirements of modern web applications. Since Security is a paramount concern for enterprise Java applications, good knowledge of a security framework like Spring security goes a long way in someone's career. It helps you become a full-stack developer and opens a lot of opportunities in terms of job and career growth. There is a lot of demand for Java developers who know the Spring framework and understand how to secure their applications on the web. They are also one of the highest-paid professionals in the Java world, where a Java developer with Spring + Spring Security gets anywhere to 120,000 - 150,000 USD or equivalent across the globe. Even in India, you get a lot of excellent opportunities, exciting work, and a higher salary if you have these skills.

There is a lot of emphasis on Security, and many organizations use third-party security audits and tools like Fortify to identify security holes in their application. A good understanding of Spring security not only helps you think about Security at the start of an application but also allows you to treat Security as a concern and secure an already built application.

So, we know that Security is essential, and Java developers will benefit a lot from learning and using Spring security, but how do you learn them? They are not the most straightforward concepts to master and try, so selecting a good book and training course is essential.

Fortunately, Spring Security is a mature framework, and there is a lot of material available on the internet, which you can use to learn and master. Still, if you are starting from scratch, I suggest reading a book or taking an online course first, instead of learning bits and pieces on blogs and articles.

Undoubtedly, blog posts and articles provide a lot of value, but a book and a structured course provide you with a comprehensive learning experience. Once you are familiar with most of the stuff, you can read blog posts and articles to learn more and further solidify your understanding.

If you are not familiar with the Spring framework itself, you should start with that first before jumping on Spring Security. And if you need recommendations, then Spring Framework 5: Beginner to Guru by John Thompson on Udemy is the best course to start with.





Top 3 Spring Security Books and Course for Java Developers

Since many of my readers ask me about the best books to learn Spring Security, I share a couple of titles that I have read and found excellent. Ideally, I like to read a couple of books, but in general, one good book and one excellent training course are more than enough to start with. Anyway, here are my recommendations for learning Spring Security from scratch


1. Spring Security in Action

This is an excellent book that initially looked boring to me. When I read the first couple of chapters, I was about to put it down, but the real action began with deep diving with spring security. The book has a lot of sample code, and it enforces you not only to read but also to work; I mean, try and test sample application and builds along with each new concept, which is excellent.

It also does an excellent job of explaining essential details. It tells you what happens when you add <http> tag, security context, how the order of intercept-url matters, and the consequence of using it security=none for leaving out CSS and JavaScript another URLs.

 All in all, it's a complete book which not only covers basics but also advanced details, and on top of that, it's also the most up-to-date course as it covers Spring Security 5.  My big thanks to Laurentiu Spilca and Manning, the author and publisher of spring security in action, for creating this excellent book.

best book to learn Spring Security for java developers


Along with Spring Security basics, you will learn how to customize Spring security based on your need, starting with form-based logging to integrating with custom authentication providers based on your company and environment.

You will also discover the relationship between OAuth2 and OpenID Connect and learn how to secure your microservices and serverless applications with Spring.



2. Spring Security Core: Beginner to Guru

This is another excellent course on Spring security from Spring expert, John Thompson whose Spring Security 5 course is one of my favorite courses to learn Spring. I love John Thompson's teaching style because of clear and concise explanations and touching the basics, which most instructors ignore.

For example, in this Spring Security course, his first few lectures will give you a good idea of what Spring security is and why you need it. You will understand Authentication like Http Basic Authentication and Authorization like Role-based access control, and how Spring security help with that, which is excellent.

One of the things any Java developer really likes to improve is their understanding of Security in the web application. I have interviewed many experienced developers not knowing much about common security exploits like SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting, Session Hijacking, etc.

best Spring Security course for beginner


They can benefit from joining this course and taking Learn Spring Security 5 training from Eugen, which we'll discuss in the next section.

These two courses and the Spring Security book are enough to get all the required Spring security skills for most Java developers. If you need more choices, you can also look at the Spring Security Fundamentals course from Pluralsight.

The Author, Bryan Hassen, has presented some excellent information on the Spring security framework. The best thing is that Pluralsight provides a free trial, which means you can just signup and take this course for free.






This is one of the best online courses to learn Spring Security in depth by Eugen, Paraschiv of Baeldung. Eugen needs no introduction; he is also the author of one of the most popular advanced Spring courses, REST with Spring, which teaches developing RESTful Web Services using Spring. 

Still, not many people know that he also has one more gem, his learn Spring Security course. The course is not only properly structured, which makes it suitable for both junior and experienced developers, but it also covers all necessary security stuff required in a production-like, real-world enterprise application.

This is one of the best courses to learn Spring Security and the most up-to-date and very hands-on.  You can take this course along with Spring Security 5 book to learn Spring Security 5 in depth to secure your Microservice and Java applications.

best course to learn Spring Security for Java programmers


That's all about some of the best books and courses to learn Spring Security in depth. Even though Spring in Action is an excellent book, which covers most of the features of the Spring framework, it's kind of light on Spring security. It does include Spring security, especially the web application security and method level security, but that's not good enough.


Other Java and Spring Articles you may like to explore

Thanks for reading this article. If you find these best Spring Security resources, books, tutorials, and courses useful, then please share them with your friends and colleagues.

P. S. - If you are using Spring security to protect your application, you should know more than that, and this is where these books help. They complement what is covered in Spring in Action and provide internal implementation details, which are vital for extending and customizing the Spring security for your need. The Spring Security Core: Beginner to Guru from Udemy, combined with these books, is perfect for mastering Spring Security from start to end.
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