Whether it is a healthcare app or financial management software, no application is 100% secure from a cybersecurity breach. There are several reported incidents of hackers gaining access to sensitive customer information, which is why people are conscious when it comes to sharing their details online. The data breach is a common problem in the cyber-space, causing problems for many organizations. But this is not the right solution. It is important for software developers and testers to find approaches that can ensure maximum security and avoid cyber-attacks.
In August 2018, Director of Cyber Risk Research at Hacken.io stated that healthcare data of more than 2 million Mexican citizens was leaked. Similarly, Marriott Corporation also revealed that their reservation system was breached by hackers which exposed data of over 500 million customers. There were similar cases reported in other countries including, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. The bright side after these incidents have happened is that security is the main concern amongst businesses. Companies have realized that each team member plays a significant role in ensuring the protection of the digital infrastructure. Developers, testers and QA experts are more conscious in implementing strategies to improve security. Testing teams take all preventive measures to make their work secure and safe. They provide performance testing services to help protect enterprises’ data and IT infrastructure.
Let’s discuss how performance testing can help testers achieve their goals:
Complete Knowledge and Understanding
When it comes to performance testing, it requires a clear understanding of how information is being distributed in digital infrastructure. Testers benefit from their basic networking knowledge and experience. They should know about all the devices, interactions via different IP addresses, ports, etc. It helps them in writing test scripts and prepares them for performance testing.
Secure Production Data
It is essential to access real-world data for effective performance testing. This can be somewhat challenging for the testers. To get access to production data, temporary access to the data store is provided by using production credentials. Highly sensitive information is shared with testers for testing, which is a threat to security, too. Thus, testers need to secure this production data when testing.
Introduce DevSecOps
DevSecOps is gaining popularity in the testing arena. Each team member, whether in the development team or working for operations, gets a chance to improve their security practices. The main aim of DevSecOps is to improve security in all aspects of the software development process.
‘Fast Release’ Deadlines
When a new feature is introduced into an app, it is important to test is from all aspects. Testers use the production platform for testing, which is risky for security. But in dire need of meeting fast release deadlines, performance testing should not be skipped at any cost.
Compliance
Compliance with security standards like PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is an easy way to protect any segment of the digital infrastructure. All these standards should be embedded when performance testing is carried out, to ensure secure software testing.