The Importance of Application Security Testing
We all know that since the introduction of the internet, computers became one of the most important pieces of any workplace. We all use the internet for business purposes and one of our main concerns while surfing the web is how secure we are.
Hackers are always trying to improve their tools and mechanism of actions and if they want to target a great number of people, they need to attack something that is common and easy to see, like web applications. Web applications are used many times a day and are a common target of attacks, web applications even gained the name “the punching bag of the internet”.
Application Securityhas become a priority concern of the organizations of today. Application Security is made around the ideas of a sturdy code that serve its purpose while keeping its data secure. This is made with the intention of reducing vulnerabilities in the matters of security, improving security functions, adding strong encryption and making sure that it can function well with the existing infrastructure of any organization.
Application security testingmethods scan vulnerabilities or security breaches in applications, which can leave them without defenses against exploits. Security testing should be implemented during the entirety of the software development, from design to deployment, and then from upgrades or maintenance.
During anapplication security code review,there are different techniques that can find distinct security flaws and they each have their own pros and cons. Knowing how effective they are during the different stages of development of an application is the best way to use them, the two most used are:
Blackbox Security Audit: It is made through the use of an application security testing and it doesn’t require the source code.
Whitebox Security Review or Static Application Security Testing: It is done by analyzing an application source code with the intention of knowing if there is a flaw present. This type of testing can be made without compiling the code.
Application security scanners are one of the most used tools used by security organizations to automate the testing of web applications, but even when these applications can be reliable, they shouldn’t be a substitute for a true source code review. A good method to review the security of an application can be that of an analyzer that checks the code while running an application securitytool, since most individual programs can reach an astounding amount of lines of code and it is difficult for any person to make a comprehensive analysis that covers all the paths of an app to find flaws and breaches.
Application security testinghas become a common and efficient way to improve security and reduce the numbers of flaws in the software that could be exploited. Even when applications have been built carefully, they can still have vulnerabilities, and running an application code review at different stages of its development is a sure way to examine the backbone of an application without even executing it.