Security Assessment and Security Testing are essential components of a comprehensive security strategy. In some circumstances, combining Security Testing with other aspects Security Assessment, such as Examination, can lead to better security decision-making.
What is Security Assessment? Why it needed?
Security Assessment refers to action plans that ensure all systems are secure and protected from internet threats.
Since a security assessment is primarily a plan, it does not need to go into extensive detail about how the vulnerabilities emerge, how to detect them, or how to fix them immediately. The main purpose of a security assessment is to identify, assesses, and implements key security controls in applications.
What is Security Testing? Why it needed?
Unlike Security Assessment, which has a broad scope, Security Testing is a specific type of Software Testing that focuses on identifying and resolving vulnerabilities in applications. Simply put, Security Testing aims to detect and mitigate as many security vulnerabilities as possible.
A briefly comparison between Security Assessment and Security Testing
The following comparison table outlines key details about Security Assessment and Security Testing, including their scope, primary objectives, methods, types, frequency, and expected outcomes. By examining these two concepts, I hope to provide a clearer understanding of the security landscape.
| Security Assessment | Security Testing |
Note | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Definition | Security Assessment is an action plan aimed at ensuring that all system aspects are protected against security threats |
Security Testing is a type of Software Testing, that focuses on identifying and resolving security vulnerabilities in software applications |
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| Scope | Broad, covering various elements such as policies, processes, technologies, security configurations and human factors |
Focuses on specific systems, applications, network components |
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| Objectives | Evaluate overall risk and compliance | Identify and exploit specific vulnerabilities | |
| Methods |
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Security Testing is a part of Security Assessment |
| Types |
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| Frequency | Periodic | Continuous or as required | |
| Outcome | A detailed report on the security level of the system, network, applications, and organization |
A detailed report on security vulnerabilities, weaknesses and possible remediation measures. Documents the testing process and results |
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| Example | Company XYZ has an online shopping website that stores customer data (personal information and payment details) in a database. They require a security assessment to ensure system security, compliance with security standards and protection of customer data |
A tester is asked to hack the system and extract sensitive customer information from the database or modify a record of an employee |
Both Security Assessment and Security Testing are crucial for ensuring the security of software applications. The more thoroughly you assess your system's security, the more resilient and sustainable your organization will become. Stay tuned for the next topic, where we'll dive into how super cool penetration testers can hack a system!