Software Security Testing Process - Types and Best Practices
Today’s increasing adoption of technology is heavily declining the scope for privacy and confidentiality at an alarming rate. From top organizations to small-scale startups, everybody is facing potential threats from data breaches & hacking. That’s why building an exploit-resistant platform with an effective software security testing process has become necessary rather than an option in every sector.
Are you wondering how? Then, follow this blog and learn all the related insights.
How can the security testing be defined? What’s its purpose?
Thinking about what is security testing? Here it is! Security testing is a process to check the software’s vulnerability to cyber-attacks. So, primarily, it subjects the application or system to security scenarios like unauthorized access or malicious viruses. Then, effectively identifies all the potential threats and measures the capacity to withstand and protect the data.
The main purpose of security testing is to verify its compliance and security standards by analyzing the loopholes and security gaps. Since it’s a non-functional test, it will mainly focus on checking the system’s overall operation and mechanism rather than individual features. Also, here, Static testing and Dynamic testing tools are used to suffice the cause.
In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that the scope of penetration scanners will highly increase, and an extra 56,500 testers will be needed by 2031. So, going ahead in the software security testing process, let’s learn about different types of security testing and their uses.
Which are the other tests that make up the security testing?
Security test services are highly capable of protecting sensitive data from security breaches and helping increase customers' trust. But it’s important to realize that we have a wide spectrum of software mediums available. Let’s see what are the different types of security testing for each of them below:
Penetration testing
Penetration testing is the most popular and common testing type out of all. Its procedure simulates real-time cyber attacks against the app or system under controlled conditions. Then, it evaluates its counterattack security measures. Another key point is that it helps in finding unknown vulnerabilities and threats without causing any damage.
Vulnerability scanning
Vulnerability scanning and management is a continuous process mostly used by organizations to spot, assess, report, and remediate vulnerabilities. It uses specific threat intelligence to reduce the impact of exploitation on all IT operations. You can even prioritize risks that need to be reported immediately.
Application security testing
APS describes useful methods for firms to eliminate vulnerabilities in their applications. Its main goal is to prevent all kinds of risks before launching into the market. That’s why it quickly identifies and remediates them during the development stage itself. Moreover, it gives robust security to source code from external threats.
Configuration scanning
The major benefit of configuration scan in the software security testing process is that it finds the misconfigurations in software and networks pretty easily. Then, list the best practices to avoid them and maintain the necessary compliance standards. We have many automated configuration tools to resolve this kind of challenge.
API security testing
If the API is hacked, then attackers can easily enter your internal system. That’s why we perform API security testing. It assists developers in remediating vulnerabilities from the AP interface, especially the MiTM attacks. Here, strong authentication and encryption of all communications using SSL/TLS is implied to mitigate the chance of hacking.
Risk assessments
Usually, risk assessment is more of finding & classifying the security risks or vulnerabilities as per business-critical assets. It examines which threats are more dangerous to the infrastructure and gives a clear remediation plan to eliminate them. Thus, helps in attaining long-term security for affordable investments.
Security posture assessment
A combination of security scanning, ethical hacking, and risk assessment is called security posture assessment. It identifies the risks and estimates the current security controls and gaps in security posture. After the testing, it gives suggestions on how to improve your digital assets to protect them.
Not just exploit gaps, but poorly written programs are also a straight target of attackers. Therefore, adapting tools like DAST, SAST, or RAST is necessary to create a safe ecosystem internally. Further, let’s see multiple approaches in the software security testing process.
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Do you know how security testing can be implemented?
Yes, we are here with the software security testing process. Up to now, we have seen the tools and testing types for security scans. But, to understand the process, you need to know its three fundamental approaches. So go through carefully:
Black Box Testing
Firstly, we have the most famous approach, i.e., Black Box Testing. In this software security testing process, the testers evaluate the system’s security externally without knowledge of internal processes and output. This demands the testers to evaluate according to an outsider’s perspective because when developers test them, there is a high chance for manipulation. At the same time, the tester will do the same process without any bias.
White Box Testing
White Box Testing is simply the complete opposite of Black Box Testing. Here, the tester knows the entire code structure & designs the test cases and scenarios matching the software’s source code. That’s why this approach in the software security testing process is called Glass Box Testing, as it gives clear and transparent results. Moreover, this technique examines internal workings like attributes, data structures, and components.
Gray Box Testing
The Gray Box is a hybrid of white and black boxes. Here, testers have a partial view & vague knowledge of the internal structure and overall workings of the system. Further implies them to assess the user surface & workings at the same time. So basically, it extracts the good essence from both testing techniques & gives semi-transparent answers while emphasizing their needs.
These approaches are powerful testing methods to analyze vulnerabilities. One example of security testing is sectors like banking and finance, which need transparency, so they often prefer Black Box. At the same time, app development platforms prefer White Box Testing. Moving on, learn the attributes to measure the existing level of security.
What metrics are used as part of software security testing?
The purpose of security testing is clear, but to execute in real life, you would have to encompass several attributes to examine the system or app comprehensively. So, follow the below pointers with an example of software security testing for each of them in detail:
Integrity
What integrity really means is ensuring that newly added modifications and data tampering have not reduced the accuracy or altered the previously added data. Sectors like e-commerce hold especially high importance for maintaining integrity about item prices, storage, etc., in the software security testing process.
Authentication
Authentication is a metric to verify the user’s identity and permission access. It basically prevents unauthorized people from entering the system. Along the line, validates weak passwords & security reports. Thus helping create the correct hierarchy within corporations.
Confidentiality
The confidentiality metric in software security testing processes evaluates whether sensitive information is protected enough from wrong access, leakage, etc. The best example is online payment getaways. A higher degree of confidentiality in storing user accounts & transaction details is like a compulsory trademark to thrive in this sector.
Resilience
Resilience is more of a long-term behavioral quality of software. It indicates how much your systems can withstand attacks and recovery measures. So, examine your ability to detect, analyze, and remediate the issues. Then, immediately improve or restore its capacity and analyze speed to get a higher degree of consistency.
Availability
Availability ensures the clients that their systems, websites, or apps are highly resistant to weaknesses and vulnerabilities within public platforms. Thus, avoids attacks like DDoS that cause heavy downtime and resource exhaustion. So, it is better to use a cloud-oriented platform to handle and make inquiries about the data easily.
Patch latency
Here in the software security testing process, this metric determines how quickly your system reacts to the damage and patches those spaces. So, the less patch latency means your system is more responsive to counterattacks. This is actually delivered by your partnering companies after analyzing underlying risks.
In the next section, explore how Appsierra can be your robust software partner for security testing and countermeasures.
Are you looking for security testing services from Appsierra?
Are you? Whoa! Appsierra provides top-notch cyber security testing services to tackle all your challenges. We automate the entire mechanism and simplify the complex workflows. Thus leaving no scope for security gaps and loopholes in the system. So, collaborate with us and enjoy unmeasurable perks like:
Inter-connected systems
At Appsierra’s software security testing process, we create comprehensive systems with many custom sub-systems to acquire and finish the tasks quickly. Usually, they connect the different departments of your firm to ensure the right security protocols and undisturbed coordination within work. Thus, streamlining the entire operation becomes easy & time-saving for managers.
High compliance & authorization
Our commitment to security is spread across various modules like finance, production, supply chain management, etc. And for each of them, we cater solutions designed specifically to their industry commitments and regulations. In the same way, we redefine the authorization rules and permissions as per your needful hierarchy.
New technologies
Our software security testing process induces new & advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Microservices, and Serverless architecture to reduce the workload and prompting process. Thus, regardless of location, you can contact us and get into auto-scaling. Moreover, we provide our cloud warehouse with Azure and AWS experts to help maintain your assets.
When conducting security testing services for our clients, we prioritize the evaluation of cloud infrastructure solutions to ensure a robust and secure IT environment.
Post-launching support
As a leading security testing service, we put a lot of thought into ways to optimize the budget and resources. At the same time, we help you test rigorously even after deployment to observe its performance. You can even schedule updates and ask for extra specifications to boost the chance of future growth for the least additional cost.
Asset maintenance
Digital Assets hold the highest priority in almost every organization. That’s why we tailor a purpose-oriented strategy and use the correct software security testing process & approach to analyze the SDLC. In effect, we safeguard the data 365 days with ultimate defense firewalls. So, long-term success and competence will come as default advantages.
Conclusion
Being safe & secure is just an understatement. The world needs security to help maintain and progress with future aspects as well, so choose a software security testing process and outsourcing company like Appsierra immediately to suffice your necessities. Thus, attain beyond operational efficiencies and productivity for low prices and effort.
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