Types of Security Testing

In today’s world, you need a secure system to clean the house from cyber-attacks and data breaches. And security testing is a crucial step in the aspect of identifying and neutralizing attacks. These attacks can compromise the normal working of digital assets, affecting many users. This will give an insight into the different security systems one can employ to secure assets.

However, before delving deeper into the meaning of software testing and how it can take users from vulnerability to comprehensive security, it is important to understand the fundamentals of the subject matter.

Introduction To Software Testing

Security testing is the process of evaluating the security of systems to find out the problems in the system before it is too late. Here, the developers stimulate a cyber attack to test and evaluate the strength and effectiveness of the security measures.

This simulation can help to understand the steps they can take to mitigate the effects of an actual cyber attack. These attacks are becoming trickier to find and increasingly complex. A security breach causes the loss of loads of secure data to anything in the company’s database. Although, the major loss is the reputation damage that must have taken years to build.

Developers and administrators must use regular comprehensive testing of the assets to prevent data breaches. Many types of security testing techniques exist to detect and address security issues.

Types of Software Testing

There are nine types of software testing that can be used to find out the problems in digital products, software, and assets of a company.

1. Penetration Testing (Ethical Hacking) 

Penetration testing or ethical hacking is used to check the vulnerabilities of a computer system, asset, or software. It is used to mitigate the risks if there is a cyber attack in the future. The main purpose of it is to identify the weaknesses and how to curb them. Penetration experts use new technologies to attempt to access the system, like scanning the ports, gaining cloud access, and many more.

Once they find the issues, they provide methods to overcome those exposures. It is the first leg of creating a more robust firewall to protect the system from real-life cyber attacks.

Suggested Read: Web App Penetration Testing: Best Methods & Tools

2. Application Security Testing (AST) 

Application Security Testing (ASP) refers to assessing software applications to identify security flaws. AST involves various techniques like static analysis, dynamic analysis, and interactive application security Testing (IAST). It is required to find application code, configuration, and design issues.

The goal of AST is to prioritize and identify the risks and provide remediation to improve the overall structure of the app. AST helps make the app resilient against cyber attacks protecting sensitive data and the application’s overall security. It can address the issues proactively, reducing the likelihood of a security breach.

3. Web Application Security Testing 

Web Application Security Testing is a process to identify potential security risks in a web application. It stimulates attacks by detecting and fixing weaknesses. There are many different types of testing, like penetration testing, vulnerability testing, and code reviews. It aims to gather information on web applications, discover their flaws and investigate and evaluate the system’s vulnerabilities.

The developers do the code reviews to identify bugs, increase code quality, and help developers to understand the source code. Through automated software, they check these web apps from the outside for SQL and command injections, cross-site scripting, and insecure server configuration.

4. API Security Testing

API (Application Programming Interface) Security Testing checks the vulnerabilities in the APIs to find the gaps in the security for the engineers to fix them. Historically, penetration testing or manual scanning was used to find the vulnerabilities, whereas developers now use DevOps Pipeline to catch the issues during the development lifecycle. They use many tools to test the APIs, but dynamic testing is used against API endpoints.

It’s important to prioritize security when creating RESTful and other APIs because personal data, financial information, and other sensitive data can be exposed if they get compromised, exposed, or hacked.

5. Vulnerability Scanning

Vulnerability scanning systematically checks a computer system, network, or application for known security weaknesses. It involves using specialized software tools to identify potential vulnerabilities, such as outdated software versions, unpatched security holes, misconfigured settings, or weak passwords.

Regular vulnerability scanning can help organizations maintain the security and integrity of their IT systems and protect against data breaches and cyber-attacks. It is an important part of any comprehensive security strategy.

6. Security Audits

A security audit is a look at an organization’s security measures to find holes and possible threats. Its goal is to figure out how well the security protocols and procedures work. The physical, technical, and administrative parts of security are all examined in the audit. During a security audit, the auditor may talk to people, look at the paperwork, do vulnerability scans or penetration tests, and more.

The audit’s results are written up in a report that lists the vulnerabilities found, the risks they pose, and suggestions for how to fix them. Security audits are essential to ensure that an organization’s assets, like information, equipment, and people, are safe and protected.

7. Risk Assessments

A risk assessment identifies, evaluates, and analyses potential risks associated with a particular activity or situation. It involves determining the likelihood and severity of harm or damage resulting from a risk and then developing strategies to mitigate or manage those risks.

The process of risk assessment typically involves several steps, including identifying potential hazards, assessing the likelihood and consequences of those hazards, evaluating the risk associated with each hazard, and determining appropriate risk management strategies.

8. Security Scanning

When testing software, hardware, or entire systems, the goal is to find any flaws that malicious actors or vulnerabilities could use. Attack simulation tests a system’s resilience and confirms that it can keep private information safe. Security testing is mandatory for critical information to remain secure and for online attacks to be avoided.

9. Posture Assessment

A posture assessment is a type of security testing that looks at an organization’s security posture. It means finding and analyzing places where their security system, policies, and procedures could be weak.

The goal is to find security holes that attackers could use and make suggestions for making things safer. This assessment can help organizations keep their sensitive information safe and stop security breaches.

Bottom Line

In conclusion, security testing is a crucial step in ensuring the security of digital assets and protecting against cyber-attacks and data breaches. With the increasing complexity of attacks, regular testing is necessary to identify vulnerabilities and take steps to mitigate them.

Various types of security testing techniques are available, including penetration testing, risk assessments, security scanning, and many more. Employing these techniques can help organizations maintain the security and integrity of their systems and protect sensitive data from exposure.