Teaching AppSec With Scratchers: Gamified Learning For Real-World Impact - Jenn Gile

In this episode of the Security Repo Podcast, Jenn Gile shares insights from her hands-on security education at DEF CON's AppSec Village, where she ran a wildly successful lottery-style dependency upgrade game. She discusses the challenges developers face with remediation, the importance of empathy in AppSec, and how gamified, tangible learning experiences can bridge gaps between dev and security teams. The episode also explores how community engagement and inclusive learning can strengthen security culture.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenngile/Jenn Gile is a tech educator and community builder with experience in AppSec, DevOps, and national security spaces. She’s a frequent speaker at security meetups and conferences, a prolific writer, and is the host of LeanAppSec - a free educational program that helps AppSec professionals be more effective without getting bigger budgets. Jenn is currently Head of Community at Endor Labs, and previously worked at F5, NGINX, and the U.S. Department of State. Outside of work, Jenn is deeply involved in the cycling community as a board member for 2nd Cycle.