There is no use in crying over the spilt milk. Similarly, there is no point in implementing security after the attack has been done. So, prevention is better than cure and to prevent any unwanted breach all you need is a strategized and diligent security testing services to protect your precious data.
The global industrial cybersecurity Market projected to grow from USD 15.84 billion in 2019 to USD 29.41 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 8.2% in the 2020-2027 period.
When we talk about security testing services, we basically talk about the entire range of security services which ensures the proper functioning of your product. These security services evaluate the integrity, authenticity and safety of your data.
The security testers focus on the complete layer of the information system spread across the entire infrastructure and make it safe from potential bugs and vulnerabilities.
1) Introduce DevSecOps into your process
Development Security Operations refers to the implementation of best security practices into the existing DevOps workflow. So, security services when combined with the process automates the security workflow and both of them together forms the DevSecOps flow.
DevSecOps follows a simple mindset as against the conventional security releases that involve a dedicated team for testing security. It incorporates security into every step of the software development.
This makes it an integral part of the system and thus security becomes a uniform function to be tested and followed and not an isolated standalone activity. It integrates and transforms the below-mentioned steps as a part of the regular testing process:
- Documentation and implementation of security requirements
- Design activities with in-built security
- Taking security as the topmost priority
- Integrate seasonal security changes as a regular practice
This makes it an overall responsibility rather than a monotonous activity to be performed by a separate team. This also makes DevSecOps more successful when it is considered as the utmost priority for the product.
Benefits of DevSecOps Approach
- DevSecOps helps the development team to harness the power of agile methodologies as a security testing method and seamlessly integrates it into the development process.
- This approach helps the company to utilize the full capacity of the cloud services. Cloud services effectively utilize detective security controls with continuous integration by utilizing DevSecOps approach.
- The approach delivers the code in small bits and pieces so that the vulnerabilities can be tracked quickly and easily.
- It increases the speed of the process by letting anybody submit the changes. And then determining whether the change is appropriate or inadequate.
- DevSecOps detects every potential threat with each code update and responses quickly.
2) Implement PCI DSS
The compliance was introduced almost a decade back to provide a degree of security while handling the sensitive information of the customer’s payment card. Organizations handling sensitive PCI DSS data are required to meet the compliance by keeping a stringent check on the below-mentioned points:
- Installation of a firewall to protect the data
- Change passwords regularly, don’t use stagnant and vendor-provided passwords
- Complete protection of stored data
- Encryption of the data across public networks
- Development & maintenance of security applications
- Regularly update the Antivirus and the firewall
- Complete restriction to unauthorized access at all levels
- Restriction of physical access (If applicable)
- Assigning a unique ID to each user
- Monitoring access control over the network
- Regular test security practices
- Maintaining a strong security policy
3) Vulnerability Scanning
This is a high-level automation test that scans the security system and reports all potential threats. This scanning is process is further divided into internal and external scanning processes.
The internal scanning process is done within the network and inside the firewall to detect vulnerabilities on the internal host that has a potential possibility of exploitation.
Whereas the external scanning process is performed outside the network to detect the loopholes in the network architecture. The scans generate reports and provide references for future researches and updations.
4) Penetration Tests
Similarly, somewhat like a hacker, a penetration is used to analyse the entire environment thoroughly. Detect the loopholes at all levels and tries to exploit the same.
The tester acts as a potential hacker and tries to create a breach into the network security system and then reports accordingly. The reports generally include a detailed description of attacks used, testing methods and suggestions to resolve.
5) Be prepared for Zero-Day exploit
The threat got its name ‘zero-day’ from the fact that the developers or testers have zero days or practically no time to fix it. ‘Zero-day’ refers to the vulnerability that has been detected or exploited and is yet not patched.
Since this threat is discovered before being detected by the security testing team, it poses a relatively very high amount of risk to the system or organization.
In case the attackers get early access to the main control system, there are chances of total system blockage.
For the entire duration, the system is continuously left exposed until a solution is being implemented
Routing your communication channel through constant vigilance may help to diminish the effect. These zero-day attacks lead to trojans, polymorphic worms and various types of malware. It is generally assumed that these attacks cannot be prevented however, in order to remediate on an immediate basis, the testers need to:
- Use signature-based threat detection technique which is done in reference to the already built signatures for historical attacks.
- Statistics based detection helps in identifying the threat based on previous attack profiles.
- Threat detection based on behaviour patterns helps by analysing the interaction between the attacker and the host.
- Need to stay updated with the latest threat vectors. Mock practices are an effective way to keep the team in an ‘always on’ mode so that they are ready to act on an immediate basis.
- Regular knowledge and training sessions on the latest security threats and updates with the response team can have a huge impact on limiting these ‘Zero-day’ vulnerabilities.
With the passage of time technology has evolved and with this omnipresence of technology, black hat hackers have also evolved at an equivalent pace. It thus becomes important for our security testers to stay ahead in the race of security optimization.
With a keen eye on some of the latest software security testing trends will surely help in strengthening the security basics.
