November 26, 2024 ⏱️ 6 min
By Ovidiu E. and Sorin V. (QA – Security Testing Group)
In this ever-changing digital universe, security risks are increasing at least as fast as the technologies and their applications. Often forgotten or postponed for faster development and product deployment, security testing might not be a top priority for Agile development teams during the software development life cycle (SDLC).
This article will cover how to include security testing in the SDLC while using Agile methodology and the advantages brought to the software products and organizations.
Understanding Security Testing
What: Security testing evaluates software to expose vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious individuals or organizations. This process ensures that the software is strong against any real-world threats: can protect user and company data, maintain functionality and will comply with security standards and regulations.
When: Security testing should be conducted and the results properly escaladed before the attackers can find and exploit any vulnerability.
The Importance of Security Testing in SDLC
Drawing a parallel between the work of manual functional testers and security testers:
A strong starting point in understanding the importance of Security Testing in SDLC can be found in the example of integrating a Test Engineer or QA member into the Agile development team from the very beginning of a software project.
While the QA members perform functional and non-functional tests, they are also included in all steps of the process. The impact they have from the first step “Requirements & Design” to the last one “Deploy & Track” is enormous. As a result, the quality of the project at the time of live deployment is greatly improved, and the number and impact of bugs and other issues are significantly lower.
This positive effect is connected to the early testing as part of the process. By doing that, the issues are identified as soon as possible and resolved during the SDLC (there is no need to wait for the entire development to be completed or to find and fix issues in production).
The same applies to the security testing. Just like a Tester Engineer, a Security Test Engineer, who is included in the development team from the beginning of a project and along the SDLC will greatly reduce the number of security issues at the time of live deployment.
Here are several reasons that sustain the validity of the above statements and why including a Test Engineer or QA member from the start of an Agile project is beneficial:
- Early vulnerability detection: Vulnerabilities can be identified and fixed before they become significant problems by incorporating security testing as early as possible in the SDLC. The time and resources needed to fix some security flaws later in the development cycle is greatly reduced by this proactive approach.
- Compliance and Risk management: Many organizations are facing strict regulations for data protection. Security testing ensures that software is complying with those regulations, helping avoid legal matters and protecting the organization’s reputation, trust and notoriety.
- Improved product quality: Security testing does not only help protecting against cyber-attacks but also improves the overall quality of the product. Resolving security flaws enhances the application’s credibility and efficiency.
- Cost efficiency: Fixing security flaws after deployment or in the later stages of development can be expensive. Early security testing saves time and resources by quickly identifying and resolving issues.
Integrating Security Testing in SDLC Phases
Having explored the importance and reasoning behind integrating security testing into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), let’s now take a closer look at how this can be effectively implemented in a practical, real-world setting.
The following steps outline how security testing can be integrated into each phase of the SDLC, providing a comprehensive, proactive framework for secure software development.
- Requirements & Design phase: Define security requirements and objectives. Identify as early as possible the potential threats and vulnerabilities that might impact the software.
- Design phase: Incorporate security best practices into the design. Here we can anticipate potential security issues.
- Development phase: Using secure coding practices. Performing code reviews and static analysis to detect vulnerabilities early.
- Testing Phase: In this stage, the security tester can set-up, run and suggest for adding it to the pipeline for automation reasons, a tool for Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST). This is the process of analyzing a web application through the front-end to find vulnerabilities using simulated attacks. This type of approach evaluates the application from the “outside in” by attacking an application like a malicious user would. After a DAST scanner performs these attacks, it looks for results that are not part of the expected result set and identifies security vulnerabilities that will need to be interpreted and fixed. Using DAST tools is not the only way a security tester can ensure the security of the product in the testing phase. He can also do early manual Penetration testing and Security Regression Testing.
- Deployment Phase: Just before the Live deployment phase, a Penetration testing session should be run. A penetration test, also known as a pen test, is a simulated cyber-attack against your computer system to check for exploitable vulnerabilities. Penetration testing is not the only type of activity the security tester can do in this phase. He can also conduct: Vulnerability Assessment, Configuration Management and Access Control Testing.
- Maintenance Phase: Continuously monitor and update the software to address new security threats. Other actions that can be done in this phase are: Regular Security Audits, User Access Reviews and Security Training.
The Consequences of Neglecting Security Testing
Let’s engage in a thought experiment: What could happen if the steps outlined above are not implemented?
Imagine a project where security is something that is not considered from the start and the product is deployed live with big security vulnerabilities. What will happen next with the users? What will happen with the company or its image when user data is leaked or the servers are taken down?
Here are some results of breaches found and exploited by hackers and their negative effects to the companies and their users:
Big financial repercussions: The biggest loss caused by a cyber-intrusion happened to Equifax, which incurred an estimated financial loss of over $1.4 billion. But it’s not the only case, you can read about more companies and their losses here.
Data breaches: An example of a big data breach and how it can affect the company and mostly its users is the CAM4 Data Breach that happened in March 2020 and over 10 billion records related to the users of the biggest adult webcam streaming website were exposed. Data like: Full name, sexual orientation, chat transcripts, payment logs, IP addresses and more. More details about this breach and many others can be found here.
Bankruptcy: In some cases, a company can never recover from a cyber-attack and need to shut down their business. Code Spaces is one of the companies that was unable to resolve the issues caused by one of such attack. You can find more details about this one and others here.
Conclusion
Incorporating security testing into the SDLC is very important for developing secure and reliable software and not taking the risk of trying to get to that stage by trial and error on a live environment, with all the risks involved in doing so.
By handling security concerns early and throughout the entire development process, organizations can protect their software applications from potential threats, ensure compliance with regulations and deliver high-quality software to their users.
Îndemnul nostru
Efortul pus în programele pentru studenți completează teoria din facultate cu practica care “ne omoară”. Profitați de ocazie, participând la cât mai multe evenimente!
În cei 3 ani am lucrat la proiecte diverse ce au contribuit decisiv la evoluția mea profesională. Am colaborat strâns cu echipe remarcabile, a căror dedicare și sprijin au fost fundamentale în buna dezvoltare a lucrurilor. Cu fiecare proiect, am învățat nu doar aspecte tehnice, ci și abilități esențiale de comunicare și colaborare, reflectate în experiența mea privind interacțiunile cu clienți și modul în care o echipă eficientă operează. Aceasta este cultura companiei, de la ritmul uneori alert al zilei de lucru și practicile Agile, până la momentele relaxante de socializare cu colegii în pauzele de cafea și activități recreative precum darts și ping pong.
Am făcut cunoștință cu echipa NetRom prin intermediul programelor Internship și NetRom Software Academy, in care am descoperit că noțiunile învățate acasă au totuși aplicabilitate, chiar în cadrul unor aplicații reale. Acele experentie m-au convins să aplic pentru un job.
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Am aflat de programele NetRom de la o prezentare organizată în facultate de companie. Am decis să mă înscriu la Summer Camp din dorința de a înțelege ce anume ar presupune o cariera în IT. În urma acestui stagiu de practică, am reușit să dezvolt propria aplicație cu ajutorul mentorilor care mi-au oferit informații teoretice, dar mai ales practice, pe care nu aș fi putut sa le găsesc într-un tutorial aleatoriu de pe internet. Modul meu de abordare a aplicaților s-a schimbat odată ce am înțeles în ce constă mai exact procesul, ce presupune un mediu real de lucru și importanța muncii în echipă.
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Recomand tuturor celor care își doresc o carieră în QA să ia în considerare această academie, fiind destinată atât celor din domeniu, dar nu numai.
Am descoperit NetRom prin intermediul unui program de internship și am fost impresionată încă de la început de mediul de lucru plăcut, de susținerea și angajamentul colegilor. A fost o oportunitate deosebită de a lucra într-o echipă de proiect, cu roluri specifice, și de a înțelege mai bine cultura companiei. Întreaga perioadă s-a dovedit o experiență valoroasă, atât din punct de vedere al cunoștințelor acumulate, cât și prin prisma relațiilor dezvoltate. În momentul în care mi s-a propus să continui ca angajat permanent, a fost o decizie ușor de luat, bucuroasă fiind să pot aplica cele învățate, dar și să adaug cunoștințe noi în fiecare zi.
