Implementing Security Testing in Your Website QA Strategy

In today’s digital age, it’s important to protect your website against cyber threats. Just like in-depth testing of a website’s performance, prioritizing security testing for a website is essential. This guide will provide insights into the importance of website security testing, address the steps for conducting the security testing, and recommend the tools you should use for the process.

What is website security testing?

Website security testing is the process of evaluating a website’s security measures to look for potential vulnerabilities, flaws, and weaknesses that attackers may exploit. It aims to ensure the site’s integrity, confidentiality, and availability, protect sensitive data, and maintain users’ trust.

Regular website security testing is important for maintaining a secure online presence and protecting any sensitive data from being compromised. It helps companies resolve security issues, follow industry regulations and standards, and maintain user trust.

How to conduct website security testing? 

There are two primary approaches to conducting web security testing: manual and automated. Both methods have advantages and limitations and are usually used together to achieve comprehensive testing results.

Manual testing

Manual testing consists of the human expertise and intuition to look for vulnerabilities that may be unidentified or missed during automated tests. As a user, the tester interacts with the website and attempts to exploit vulnerabilities by manipulating cookies, input fields, and HTTP requests.

Manual testing needs a deep understanding of web application security and is more time-consuming and labor-intensive. However, it may uncover complicated vulnerabilities that automated tools may have missed.

Automated testing

Automated testing involves software tools automatically scanning the website for errors and weaknesses. Automated tools can find common vulnerabilities quickly and reduce the time it takes for testing. However, they may give out false positive results or miss any complex vulnerabilities that may require manual testing.

4 website security testing techniques

Website security testing techniques evaluate a website or application’s security. These techniques track down weaknesses, vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and flaws that make the website or application vulnerable to cyber attacks. The most common website security testing tools include:

1. Vulnerability scanning: Automated tools can be used to scan websites for any vulnerabilities, outdated components or misconfigurations. Vulnerability scanners may find security issues and offer remediation advice.
2. Penetration testing: For the manual testing methodology, security professionals simulate real-life attacks on a website to find vulnerabilities and weaknesses that automated tests may have missed. Penetration testing usually involves a mix of vulnerability exploitation, social engineering, and other attack techniques.
3. Code review: Developers or security experts review the website’s source code manually and look for potential security flaws, vulnerabilities, and areas for improvement. Code reviews can ensure that the best practices are followed and that encryption mechanisms, proper input validation, and error handling are in place.
4. Configuration review: Security experts evaluate the web server’s configuration settings, application servers, databases, and other elements of the technology stack to ensure that they are secure and up-to-date.

Best practices for website security testing

Now that you know the essential about website security testing, let’s move on to the best practices to ensure your website’s security.

Focus on cross-browser compatibility testing 

Cross-browser compatibility testing is crucial for website security testing. Different browsers may interpret the website’s code differently, potentially leading to security issues. For example, a secure website on one browser may have vulnerabilities on another.

Testing the website on multiple browsers and versions can help you identify and fix any existing vulnerabilities. Remember to also test the website on mobile devices as they may use different browsers and have other security issues.

Use risk-based testing

Risk-based testing focuses on addressing the most critical threats. This approach involves assessing the chances and impact of each vulnerability to ensure the biggest risks are addressed first.

To implement risk-based testing properly, you should have a clear understanding of your website’s assets and potential threats. This includes determining sensitive data like user credentials, personal data, and payment information and understanding the types of attacks that may likely target your website.

After identifying these potential risks, the next step is to focus on your testing efforts based on how severe each vulnerability is and how it may impact the website’s security. Ensure that the high-risk vulnerabilities that may lead to significant data breaches or disruptions are resolved first, followed by lower-risk issues.

Conduct penetration testing

Penetration testing or also known as ethical hacking and pen testing, is a crucial practice for website security testing. It involves simulating real-life attacks on your website to find vulnerabilities and weaknesses before hackers can exploit them. Regular penetration tests can help you uncover security issues that automated tools may have missed and take the necessary steps to resolve them. 

Here are steps for effective penetration testing for your website security testing:

1. Set objectives: Define your goals and scope of testing to determine which part of your website requires testing and what kinds of attacks to simulate.
2. Choose methodology: Based on your needs, Choose the appropriate method (e.g., black box, white box, gray box).
3. Engage skilled testers: Hire experienced penetration testers or train your employees to become one to ensure necessary skills and certifications.
4. Combine manual and automated testing: Using both techniques offers comprehensive coverage and helps identify common and complex issues.
5. Follow a structured approach: Use systematic framework like OWASP Testing Guide or PTES to exploit and report any issues.
6. Document and remediate: Record identified vulnerabilities, how severe they are, their impact, and suggested remediation steps and address them based on risk level.
7. Do regular testing: perform regular penetration tests, especially after website changes, to ensure it’s up to date with effective security measures.

Conclusion 

Ensuring the protection of your website is paramount in this rapidly evolving digital landscape. With thorough security testing, we can create effective barriers against cyber threats. Remember that you can never assume that your website is entirely secure, in the same way that you shouldn’t think that it works properly, which is why businesses invest in testing and QA.