Why Is Testing A Security Aspect Important In System Testing?

You all check your car’s lock or premise’s doors twice before leaving for work or crashing the bed after calling it a day, right? What do you do in this process? The simple answer is you test whether the security solution is robust and doing the intended job or not. Whether it is your house or shop, or a software system, there is no alternative to maintaining its security. Hence, when you have developed a software system, testing its security aspect becomes a necessary process.

The very existence of a software system depends upon the level of its security’s robustness. A system may become the easy target of intruders and hackers that may hijack it completely, forcing the owners to shut it down. The worst impacts manifest in the form of loss of business, reputation, and ultimately customer loyalty. Too much for a slip of security feature, isn’t it? Thankfully, all of this can be avoided if businesses get the security aspects checked and tested proactively.

In this post, we intend to familiarize you with:

1. What is system security testing?
2. Types of security tests and what they do
3. Importance of doing security tests in system testing

So, here we start!

1. What Is System Security Testing?

System security testing is a process by which quality analysts pinpoint all loopholes of functional and structural nature in the system and suggest ways to plug them. The process is primarily an auditing activity that affirms whether the system complies with all security standards set as per industrial norms or not. Moreover, it provides protection against all types of hacking attempts.

System Security Testing Procedure

Security testing services follow a well-tailored testing procedure. This procedure does not consider the testing process as a standalone activity. In fact, it works on the principle that security issues should be identified right at the point and time of emergence. Thus, this system of security testing carries out the checking according to the phases of a system development, which are:

• Requirement Analysis: Confirming if the requirements are not creating any misuse case is the primary objective of security testing at this stage. Analysts also confirm that security requirements analysis has also been done side by side the system requirement analysis.
• Designing: Finding plausible security loopholes in design while doing feasibility analysis and creating a system model.
• Coding: Procedure used is called white box testing. It encompasses testing of structural features and overall working of the system. Pre-defined outputs and inputs, and impending security issues arising out of working can be identified and rectified at this stage.
• Integration: Testing procedure used at this stage is called black box testing. The security testing services consider all the functionalities and try to chalk out the security concerns that arose from those.
• System Testing: When the whole system takes form and is integrated into the business’s ecosystem, it is put through a vulnerability scan. The system’s relationship with other features and agencies and the security issues arising out of those interactions are understood and cemented.
• Implementation: Both penetration testing and vulnerability scanning are done at this stage. The security tests that comprise penetration testing pinpoints all vulnerable points, plugs them, and make the software system more robust against every type of hacker attack.
• Support: Debugging and patchwork are done to ensure seamless functioning of the system as a whole. A security testing process called impact analysis is done to understand the overall outcome of patches and other alterations in code or design.

Thus, security testing is a procedure that is integrated into the production pipeline. The security testing experts need to have a cautious eye throughout the procedures so that none of the loopholes lay unattended. Timely intervention helps avoid bigger mishaps, and make businesses better prepared for delivering best-quality user experience. Let’s move on to types of security tests quickly that will help us appreciate the importance of this process.

2. Types Of Security Tests and What They Do

Listed here is the list of security tests and their role in the overall software system security strengthening process.

• System Software Security Testing: The testing experts check for all the software design and code’s weaknesses. Parts like Operating System and Database on which the system’s functioning depends are checked for vulnerability and security updates issues, if any.
• Server-Side Application Security: The server-side security test of the system includes checking the servers’ robustness to block any kind of malicious attack’s possibilities.
• Client-Side System Security: Any manipulation done on the client-side can be found out and fixed using this security check type.
• Network Security: All systems are deployed to be part of a network eventually. The network security check encompasses tests that determine the stability of the system against network-borne challenges and threats.

System security testing services are undoubtedly an indispensable part of the development process because of the value these bring to the table. Since their process covers all the crucial parameters, features, parts, and processes encompassing the system testing, their role is quite important in the development life cycle.

Let’s explore further the benefits or reasons to have the best testing methods in place for the system’s security testing.

3. Importance Of Doing Security Tests In System Testing

Why repent later when preventive measures are available? This very question bespeaks the most important reason for performing a security test. That is – to avoid the instances that threaten the system performance. Apart from this, security testing is important because:

• It can help throughout the software development life cycle

In the previous section, we have outlined all the phases of the software development life cycle and the corresponding security tests applicable there.

The security tests have seeped into the production process, allowing the developers to be more aware and proactive in their approach to managing and avoiding risks.

It is always costlier to go back to the start, which previously the developers were forced to do when the security tests were performed at the end of the cycle. The approach is more proactive and developers-friendly, helping them roll out quicker-to-market, more robust, thoroughly security-checked software systems.

These virtues have ultimately helped businesses:

• Beat the competition with better experience creation and quicker rollouts.
• Perform better and be available without fearing crashes, attacks, etc.
• Skim more profits by being ‘more available’.
• Win customer loyalty by offering them fully secure software or platforms to work.
• Improve productivity which used to get hampered by attacks or invasions.
• Comply with the data security norms required to stay functional in the preferred territories.

In simpler words, the security test helps improve the quality of the overall development process and makes it smarter genuinely.

• Security testing is the shield your business needs against hackers.

Security breaches come down heavily on businesses. The reports reveal that the businesses suffer massive losses in tunes of millions if the hackers disrupt their systems’ functioning. Annually, the security breaches cause businesses’ operational time loss, leading to loss of revenues and ultimately that of the market base. Reinventing the self does not prove feasible in many cases, and it turns out to be a Good Bye Forever time for some businesses that might have been only in their nascent stage.

Security testing services work as that knight in armor that your business needs. These services and their security testing procedures deliver the benefits, such as:

• All channels are timely and thoroughly checked for all risk aversion capabilities. This proactive approach builds an impregnable cover for the systems, allowing them to work freely and effectively in their networks.
• The hackers get the tough job of finding new paths, as the fixed and obvious paths of all types are closed permanently while performing security checks. Further, the environments like hybrid and private clouds set the conditions suitable for putting firewalls at all the relevant paths.
• Your business never falters on achieving customer loyalty when the security checks are in place. Since there are no threats to customer information security, the system faces a once in million chance of being under attack.
• Business continues to perform seamlessly and moves steadily on the path of value creation for the customers and stakeholders. Plugging of plausible nefarious attacks by cyber miscreants allows businesses to enjoy an interruption-free working environment.
• As a result of all this, the business manages to achieve reliable, user-friendly, and value-creating entity’s status.

Cyber-attacks are real, and so are their threats. Thus, the security check is undeniably the most significant step to include in the development process.

Want to know how security checks are performed? Here is the quick guide.

You can stop an attack only when you understand the thought process of the attacker. On this principle, security testing services develop the testing techniques that may include:

• Ethical hacking: A white-hat hacker intrudes the system and keeps a record of the points that let him in. By breaking the application apart, the robust patches are sewed into the system’s codes to make it practically impregnable.
• Password Cracking: testing experts apply all combinations of possible passwords. Based on the ease or difficulty of breaking, they suggest the password strength be applied.
• SQL Injection: It is aimed at determining the database’s security. If the error incites an action instead of preventing it, it can become the breakthrough point for an attacker. Hence, this testing tells where the problem lies in the database.

To Sum Up

The importance of testing the security aspect is paramount. Security testing or failure can make or break a system and cause heavy loss to businesses. Thus, having the best security testing services has got no alternative.

About the Author:

Colleen Sylvia is a technology enthusiast and an avid travel writer. Her work has been praised by various CXOs, CIOs of several technology giants and has also been a guest contributor to leading websites. She does her best writing on technology trends, OTT platform providers like Phando, entertainment, healthcare and travel beats. Colleen Sylvia loves to cook when she is not writing.