Security Testing

Security testing is performed to ensure that the software is safe and secure by checking whether there is any information leakage in the sense by encrypting the application or using wide range of software's and hardware's and firewall etc. This testing makes sure that the software is not easily hacked by malicious codes and helps software developers to identify and remove loopholes in the software and to ensure that the system will not be attacked by hackers and other third party intruders.


Objective of Security Testing

The objective of security testing is to ensure that adequate attention is provided to identify the security risks, to ensure that a realistic mechanism to define and enforce access to the system is in place, to ensure that sufficient expertise exists to perform adequate security testing and to conduct reasonable tests to confirm the proper functioning of the implemented security measures.

Who should do the Security Testing?

During security testing, testers may need to use a risk-based approach and can easily focus on software security assurance by finding out risks in the systems and designing tests by those risks. Irrespective of the type of testing, the testing engineers plan and conduct security testing who should have significant security and networking related knowledge including expertise in network security, firewalls, intrusion detection system, operating systems, and programming and networking protocols like TCP/IP.

Types of Security Testing

There are different types of Security Testing. They are as follows:

Security Auditing: 

Security Auditing means direct inspection of the application developed and Operating Systems and any system on which it is being developed. This also involves code walk-through. This test just looks at the overall hardware security and software security of the system.

Security Scanning: 

Security scanning involves scanning and verification of the system and applications. 

Vulnerability Scanning: 

Vulnerability scanning involves scanning of the application for all known vulnerabilities including hosts and open ports and it also provides information on the associated vulnerabilities. This scanning is generally done through various vulnerability scanning software. 

Risk Assessment: 

Risk assessment is a method of analyzing and deciding the risk, which depends upon the type of loss and the possibility/probability of loss occurrence. It helps in finding out and preparing possible backup-plan for any type of potential risk, hence contributing towards the security conformance.

Ethical Hacking:

 It is a forced intrusion of an external element into the system and applications that are under Security Testing. Ethical hacking involves number of penetration tests over the wide network on the system under test.

Posture Assessment and Security Testing: This is a combination of Security Scanning, Risk Assessment, and Ethical Hacking in order to reach a conclusive point and help your organization know its stand in context with Security.

Penetration Testing: 

Penetration testing will give you an opportunity to make valid assessments to find out if the software is effective or not especially against hacking attempts. In this type of testing, a tester tries to forcibly access and enter the application under test. In the penetration testing, a tester may try to enter into the application/system with the help of some other application or with the help of combinations of loopholes that the application has kept open unknowingly. Penetration test is highly important as it is the most effective way to practically find out potential loopholes in the application. Penetration testing can be either black hat testing, internal pen test, or external pen test.
Software Security Concerns

Creating software is not similar to securing it with a firewall at a later stage. We must build it along with the development of software and inside it. 
Building software safe and secure depends on three issues: People, technology, and process.
People should have sufficient skills and knowledge about how to test the software application and compose a report.
The people involved in the Process should know the procedures they must adapt to keep the software safe and effective.
Technology will ensure the effectiveness of the software's implementation. It will also use the necessary security features in the development framework.
The development framework should have the following activities to help thesoftware become more secure: 


•    Authentication. 
•    Session management.
•    Authorization.
•    Data validation.
•    Data protection.


The conclusion is that securing applications can ensure system safety and security, which can impede attacks by hackers. This testing is the most important tests that we should conduct before introducing it to the commercial domain.