Testing software for cyber security should be done to avoid cyber security breaches. As a software developer, it’s essential to test your program thoroughly. Unfortunately, there may be mistakes that lead to cyber security breaches.
According to a World Economic Forum report, human error accounts for 95% of cybersecurity breaches. Therefore, performing quality testing to detect all unfixed flaws is essential.
1. Not Performing Penetration Testing
Software testing has become an essential element of the development process, yet many developers still make critical cyber security errors. These oversights leave your software vulnerable to cyberattacks that could seriously harm both your business and reputation.
To guarantee that your software is secure and does not put your organization at risk, performing penetration testing before going live is a must. Penetration testing involves simulating a cyberattack against your systems to allow testers to access them and identify vulnerabilities.
A penetration test is an essential step to safeguard your organization’s data, identity, and reputation. It may also assist with meeting regulatory obligations like HIPAA or SOC 2 requirements.
It can help identify hidden vulnerabilities in your network that could allow attackers to steal or compromise sensitive information. This could result in massive data breaches that harm both customers and reputation.
Penetration testing before going live can help minimize the risk of a breach and avoid serious repercussions. However, it is essential to follow certain guidelines prior to beginning your testing journey.
One of the most frequent cyber security errors is not performing penetration testing before releasing your software. Whether you are building an industrial control system or creating a social media site, it is essential that it is secure and won’t expose your organization to cyber attacks.
The initial step in testing software for your business is understanding its impact on your operation. For instance, if you’re a natural gas pipeline operator using industrial control software, testing that program may take more time and resources than if you were creating a website.
Once you have identified which systems are critical, it is imperative to communicate this information to the penetration testing team before they begin testing them. Depending on your company, this may allow for only after-hours access to these systems.
If you are conducting a pen test, it is essential to hire an experienced cybersecurity firm with rigorous testing methodologies. With their expertise, they can identify and fix issues other companies may overlook. Furthermore, these professionals stay abreast of industry trends, government advisories, and the most up-to-date security tools.
2. Not Performing Manual Testing
Automated testing is an invaluable tool to guarantee a software product is free from errors, but it doesn’t always detect all potential bugs. That’s why manual testing remains an integral part of the software development process.
Therefore, it is essential to learn how to conduct manual testing correctly in order to guarantee your software remains safe and secure. Furthermore, sharing test results with team members can help you identify potential issues before they arise.
Manual testing is an integral component of the software development process, as it gives QAs a valuable perspective from an end-user’s point of view. With this understanding, they can detect potential issues and take proactive measures before release.
Manual testers not only test the functionality of a software product, but they also pay close attention to user experience issues as well. They might attempt to access it using different devices or browsers than usual or even try out various input methods in order to discover bugs and glitches that make the software less usable or secure. This helps them uncover potential security threats as well.
Manual testing is a valuable method for spotting potential holes that hackers could exploit to break into your system. These gaps could allow them to steal sensitive information, infect computers with malware or cause the network to crash. While these vulnerabilities can be hard to spot, it’s essential that we keep them under wraps so as not to cause any further harm.
3. Not Performing Cloud Testing
Cloud computing has become a major trend in the IT industry, with many organizations turning towards it due to its scalability and flexibility. Furthermore, cloud testing should be performed before implementing this strategy for optimal results.
One of the primary challenges organizations face when adopting cloud computing is a lack of centralized IT infrastructures. This necessitates extensive maintenance tasks and expensive dedicated hardware to support your infrastructure.
Additionally, the cloud environment is dynamic and often difficult to comprehend. This is especially true when performing testing, which necessitates an in-depth knowledge of its various components.
Another challenge is the disparity in cloud infrastructures across different regions, which may cause issues with data transfer and connectivity. Furthermore, this may affect the availability of test data sources.
Delays in testing can cause customer dissatisfaction, thus delaying sales and marketing initiatives.
Cloud software testing is an efficient solution to avoid these hassles and save money by forgoing the need to purchase, setup, and maintain hardware on-premise. Furthermore, it enables access to a wide range of tools that can be accessed from any location with internet access.
Testing that can be conducted in the cloud includes performance testing, load testing, stress testing and security testing. These checks help guarantee your application works optimally under various conditions while meeting performance, security and reliability objectives.
Performance testing measures the system throughput and latency when under heavy load. It also assesses its capacity to scale up or down as required.
Other types of cloud testing include security testing and disaster recovery testing. These checks guarantee applications are secure and user data is safeguarded, while also checking for issues like data loss, network failure, and system breakdowns.
4. Not Performing Security Testing
While testing software, it’s easy to make small errors that leave the program vulnerable to multiple cybersecurity risks. These include malware attacks, DDoS attacks, ransomware infections, SQL injection problems and more. Therefore it is vitally important that these bugs are identified during quality assurance testing in order to avert any future security issues in your business.
Beyond human error, third-party code used in software products can also lead to vulnerabilities. Therefore, it’s essential that you apply Anti-Virus Techniques (AST) practices to all third-party components used within your product. Scan and remediate them just like you do with internal components, prioritizing updates or replacements of any unsecure ones you find.
It is essential to update all software applications and their related third-party components whenever new patches become available, in order to prevent security flaws from being exploited by hackers.
Another common misstep companies make is failing to educate their employees on how to utilize their software properly and how to reduce security risks. If an employee uses a password that even a novice hacker could guess or opens malicious email attachments that spread malware across the network, they could compromise both data security and company operations.
Implementing two-factor authentication in your company’s software and providing training on its use are both essential steps for reducing data breaches, protecting customers’ personal information and payment cards, as well as shielding your organization from social engineering attacks.
