Security is a set of measure implemented to protect an application from unforeseen actions that can stop functioning of the application it can be either intentional or unintentional.
Security Testing is an integral part of Software Testing that ensures software and web applications are free from any loopholes, vulnerabilities, threats, risks that may cause a big loss to the Company/Organization, and check whether that its data and resources are protected from possible intruders. Security testing is all about finding the loopholes or unforeseen attacks to the system which might result in loss of data for the Organization/Company.
Purpose of Security Testing
The primary purpose of security testing is to spot vulnerabilities and afterward repairing them. Helps to boost the current system and make sure the system can work for an extended time. To notice loopholes which will cause loss of vital information.
OWASP Top 10 Application Security
- A2:2017-Broken Authentication
- A3:2017-Sensitive Data Exposure
- A4:2017-XML External Entities (XXE)
- A5:2017-Broken Access Control
- A6:2017-Security Misconfiguration
- A7:2017-Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
- A8:2017-Insecure Deserialization
- A9:2017-Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities
- A10:2017-Insufficient Logging & Monitoring
Is it obligatory Security to be part of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
If consumer stress into Security testing additional. (For e.g. If developers square measure functioning on the payment entranceway security testing is must)
Gain trust in Client/Customer.
Things that should be done to enhance security testing
- Security expert and Quality Engineer work together: They can work together to break the system before it goes live. That mean they have found defect at an early stage.
- Responsibility for Security testing: Review all the cases created by the Quality engineer and enhance them if needed.
- Use of the right tool: For beginners, we can use ZAP (ZED ATTACK PROXY) as it is free and open source as it is also used by the professionals, easy to use web-app pen test tool and ideal for automated security testing.
- Use the enhance automated test cases given by the security expert

How to Perform Security Testing
Vulnerability Scanning: It is done via Automated software to examine the framework against known exposure.
Security Scanning: It includes dealing with system and framework weakness, finds answers to diminish the threat.
Penetration testing: Also known as “Pen Testing or ethical hacking” it is a practice of testing computer systems, networks, or web applications to find security vulnerabilities or weaknesses that a hacker or attacker could exploit. It can be performed manually or automated with software applications.
Risk Assessment: This kind of testing includes an examination of security dangers that are seen in the association. Risks are named as follows Low, Medium, and High. This testing prescribes controls and measures to decrease the risk.
Security Auditing: This is often an internal investigation of Applications and Operating frameworks for security imperfections. The review should be possible as well using line by line examination of code.
Ethical hacking: It refers to the act of vulnerabilities and locating weakness of system includes exposing a website to discover its weak points. An ethical hacker attempts to bypass system security patch that can be later exploited by the hacker or attacker.
Posture Assessment: This joins Security checking, Ethical Hacking along with the Risk Assessments to demonstrate a general security posture of an association.
Conclusion
Secure applications can ensure system safety and security. It can impede attacks by hackers. Security testing is one of the most important tests that you should conduct before introducing it to the commercial domain.