What is the Role of Security Testing in Digital Transformation?

New technologies and work paradigms enable business enterprises to streamline and diversify their supply chains and enhance customer experiences. In order to remain competitive, businesses are expanding their technology stack and streamlining their processes. The technology stack may include embracing virtualized architecture, open-source software, containerization, and the Internet of Things, among others. However, this journey toward digital transformation comes at a huge cost - the potential danger of cyber criminals letting loose their malware to wreak havoc.

The new opportunities brought about by digitalization face renewed security challenges from the likes of hackers. So, what needs to be done? How do business enterprises keep pace with innovation while mitigating security breaches at the same time? Let us understand the menace with some statistics. According to the data breach report by the Ponemon Institute and IBM, the cost of cybercrime globally is likely to touch USD 6 trillion by 2022. In fact, the market for security testing services is growing to a humongous size as well- with projections of touching USD 17.67 billion by 2027. (Source: ResearchAndMarkets.com.)

Digital transformation is a critical activity for companies and organizations to pursue across the globe thanks to a host of benefits it offers. These include achieving greater economies of scale, eliminating or minimizing redundancies, achieving faster time to market, increasing productivity and efficiency, and enhancing customer experience, among others. So, to develop confidence and trust among stakeholders, cybersecurity testing with a shift-left approach should be the norm.

How security testing services can facilitate digital transformation

Business enterprises often lose sight of security considerations in their pursuit of digital transformation. Such oversight can often prove to be costly when data breaches take place. The only way for enterprises to become security compliant is to upgrade their security architecture, automate the security assessment process, and enjoin the staff to remain vigilant.

Know the vulnerabilities: Cybersecurity testing services can establish a baseline view of the vulnerabilities faced by enterprises through penetration or pen-testing. To identify and fix such vulnerabilities, it is important to test all networks, data centers, user access, and cloud infrastructure. Penetration testing services can get a holistic view of security exposure for any enterprise, including uncovering critical issues. These issues, if not fixed in time, can put businesses at risk from malware, ransomware, trojans, and viruses, among others.

Automate and remediate: After establishing a baseline, automated assessments should be used to perform continuous monitoring of the IT infrastructure. Any application security testing company should implement security automation to monitor and keep up with the changing approaches of cybercriminals. Today, it is not enough to test the digital infrastructure just once or twice a year. Instead, conducting security testing to identify vulnerabilities and risk levels should be a continuous process given the widening of the attack surface. Risk assessment should be automated, and remediation efforts should be put in place to prioritize work and maximize efficiency.

Implement remediation measures: To leverage the full benefits of employing software security testing services, businesses should not merely stop at getting the test report. Remediation measures should be undertaken alongside assessment to fix issues flagged by the security testers. It has been observed that businesses often undertake penetration testing to show compliance. This precludes the benefits of penetration testing from being fully realized, including shrinking the attack surface.

To maximize the impact of cybersecurity testing, especially pen testing, top business honchos should interact more with the testers. This will give them real insight into the issues or vulnerabilities plaguing their IT infrastructure (both on-premise and cloud). Also, they shall get more time to study the test report, implement the advice, verify the patching, and remediate.

It is important for business enterprises to be aware of the risks of security exposure in their digital environment. Therefore, they will implement the findings of the web application security testing services from both a technical and business perspective. By deploying security testing, they should look at aligning their strategic activities and achieving goals.

Conclusion

Digital transformation needs to be embraced by enterprises across sectors and geographies to remain competitive. However, the attendant threat of cybercrime cannot be wished away, with new cases emerging daily. Businesses should rigorously implement end-to-end cybersecurity testing to prevent cybercriminals from causing data breaches. It should not be a one-off activity but a continuous one where every stakeholder should remain vigilant and accountable.

Stark is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies. I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality that yields strong results