In the past, organizations with siloed development and security teams faced many workstream challenges. For example, development teams might finish constructing code only for the IT operations team to discover security problems when deploying and managing the code. Eventually, it made sense to consolidate these teams, making the process of working through the coding lifecycle faster, more secure and more efficient. Using this consolidated DevOps approach can give security teams the opportunity to fix and resolve problems in an agile manner through production.
These same principles should be applied when pen testing web applications used by organizations. Testing should be conducted throughout the production process, and continuously after the application has gone live.
Agile environments require modern pen testing techniques
Many would assume traditional pen testing is the appropriate step to take. However, this security method is neither agile nor appropriate in environments requiring agility. Since traditional testing methods are static, the approach can’t meet this demand. While an overview is presented of the vulnerabilities at a given moment, eventually these findings could be out of date by the time the security team gets around to remediation. Naturally, these are time-consuming and costly procedures that can be avoided by shifting toward agile testing.
Speed, adaptability and inter-team cooperation are fundamental tenets of agile working. Therefore, traditional pen testing can be seen as a hindrance rather than an advantage. Traditional pen testing can demand a lot of valuable resources such as money and time. It also relies on specialized experts to provide the necessary feedback. This can have a negative impact, particularly with early detection of code flaws and ongoing monitoring and mitigation of security threats in live environments.
READ: Securing data and systems with proactive penetration testing
Given the mindset of modern cyber criminals who are determined to seek out and exploit vulnerabilities within web applications, continuous scanning and testing is strongly recommended. This will help ensure flaws don’t end up in the final products.
Implementing agile and continuous scanning involves integrating pen testing across the entire development cycle instead of at specific points.
Indeed, a solution to the pitfalls of traditional pen testing is pen testing as a service (PTaaS). PTaaS gives organizations a way to overcome these hurdles and facilitates a high standard of continuous security testing of critical web applications. In fact, Gartner’s latest Innovation Insight: Penetration Testing as a Service report states that “by 2026, organizations leveraging PTaaS will perform up to 10 times more frequent pen testing and enable two times faster remediation than organizations adopting manual pen testing.”
PTaaS is a solution that tackles the issues of static testing by providing automated vulnerability scanning to continuously identify flaws. In fact, these tools are designed to streamline manual processes. Furthermore, with PtaaS, a middle ground is found, combining the efficiency of automated scanning with human insight and judgment as necessary, offering the benefits of both approaches.
Here are the key benefits of a PtaaS approach for security teams seeking to be agile.
1. Immediate reporting
Traditional pen testing typically culminates in a static PDF report, delaying remediation efforts until the next testing cycle, which can be time-consuming and disruptive. By providing real-time vulnerability insights, developers are granted the ability to prioritize and address issues quickly. This gives security teams a way to track resolved issues as well as new vulnerabilities as they arise, leading to a proactive stance towards having security throughout the development cycle.
2. Rapid feedback for remediation
Unlike traditional pen testing that oftentimes gives out-of-date results, PTaaS facilitates ongoing bug detection and remediation with instant feedback on the effectiveness of mitigation measures. This approach aligns with agile principles, emphasizing early vulnerability detection and resolution to prevent issues from reaching deployment.
3. Reduced dependence on vendor rotation
Onboarding new testing vendors is a cumbersome process in traditional pen testing, driven by the belief that diverse perspectives enhance vulnerability identification. PTaaS addresses this problem by offering a diverse pool of testers, ensuring continuous access to fresh insights. With experts readily available to delve into issues as needed, organizations can mitigate the need for frequent vendor changes.
4. Enhanced collaboration and communication
While automation streamlines processes, human expertise remains indispensable for thorough analysis and context-rich assessments. PTaaS bridges this gap by enabling real-time interaction between customers and testing teams, fostering open communication and collaboration. Developers can engage directly with testers to address vulnerabilities promptly, aligning with agile tactics as necessary.
The adoption of PTaaS
Given the continuous nature in which cyber criminals will an organization’s infrastructure, having security to match these demands is critical. However, security teams also require efficient, cost-effective solutions to help them mitigate the risk of a successful cyber attack by finding and remediating vulnerabilities across their systems as soon as possible. By adopting services such as PTaaS, the mission to close these gaps rapidly, effectively and with full transparency, can be readily achieved.