Should We Do Security Testing
Business operations require constant connectivity and network availability. When you fail to secure your application or website, you are inviting the risk of a DDoS attack. This attack can cripple your web application, preventing users from accessing your services and potentially halting your entire business operations. When this happens, you may find yourself having to launch a customer protection program, re-mediate your IT, or reduce employee output, not to mention the reduced profits.
A basic function of security testing is to uncover potential vulnerabilities and threats in software. A competent security tester will seek out all potential vulnerabilities in your software and make sure they are addressed before the final release. A software that passes a security test is considered secure and safe, enabling the company to boost its revenues, maintain customer confidence and build brand loyalty. But what are the benefits of security testing? Listed below are just a few of the advantages of security testing for your business.
Vulnerability scanning is the first step in security testing. It is a systematic and ongoing process of discovering vulnerabilities in systems and software. Vulnerabilities are known to allow malicious elements to access your system. Vulnerabilities can come from software, hardware, or networks. Automated scans are done periodically and are not tied to specific events, so you can avoid vulnerabilities proactively. However, it is critical to understand the scope and impact of a security breach before it can impact your business.
When Should We Do Security Testing?
Security testing can also be done for mobile applications. This technique simulates external attacks on the application. It monitors the application while it is running to look for exploitable flaws and generates a report detailing vulnerabilities in the application. This method of testing applications reduces the risk of an incident, but it does not eliminate it. It is important to understand that security testing is essential to the success of a software project.
Security scanning should be performed as part of the SDLC life cycle to ensure that vulnerabilities are detected and mitigated. Post-development security testing can be costly and may lead to devastating data breaches or damage to the reputation of a company. It should be an integral part of the QA process and integrated into the development cycle. Security scanning comes in three basic forms, black box, grey box, and white box. Understanding these differences will help you choose the right security testing.
When should we do security testing? Most security testing teams rely on automated tools to find security issues. They can be easily integrated into a CI/CD pipeline, but they aren’t fool-proof. Often, automated tools check for things like expired certificates, fully qualified domain names, and more. However, these tools can miss issues in the application’s handling of these certificates, requiring manual testing. For these reasons, automated security testing is still important.
Security testing is essential for web applications, especially if sensitive data is transferred through the internet. An attacker can access user information through an application’s URL or data by altering the values of the query strings. For example, malicious URL inputs can be used to insert malware into your application, corrupting the data you’ve stored, or stealing information from your servers. Any web application should always undergo security testing, as losing sensitive data could cripple your business.