Effective Software Development Security?
Businesses are becoming more and more certain that the only way to make them succeed in competitive markets is to develop their own software. Their software must answer some need of their market and be related to their own sphere of business. Businesses know how software can help establish the credibility of their businesses, lend them a better market share and also help them become more accepted in niche areas. There is no wonder then that businesses are divesting a major part of their resources in developing software, and are even outsourcing their software development needs so that they can get effective jobs done at better rates.
But a very important component of software development is the security of the whole thing. Security becomes much more important if the software connects to the Internet in some way and has to either send emails or receive download components from the website of the company that made the software. There are several network security threats that can target the users' computers through faultily developed software systems. Viruses and Trojan horses are the most common, but they could also open the user computer to spyware, which could wreak havoc by locating themselves on the computer system of the user and leaking out inside information to the sender of the spyware program. One of the more drastic network security threats is when malevolent hackers would be able to gain entry into network systems that the users' computers are connected to, and do anything from data diddling (manipulation of data) to data destruction.
Hence, it becomes very necessary for developers to ensure software development security right from the outset. A faulty software program that exposes the users' computers to network threats would be a shame to the developer. The main objectives of software development security is to block all kinds of viruses, Trojans, malicious codes, spyware, etc. from entering into the users' computers, and also protect them from intrusion by hackers.
Checking for software security is a very essential part of quality assurance testing. Quality assurance testing is the process in which software products are checked for their quality in different areas. They are checked for their functionality, installability, loadability, and also for their security. All bugs are found and corrected. Whenever a bug is fixed, the whole software is checked once again from the start, in a process known as regression testing. However, the requirements of security testing are much more stringent. Two methods are employed by software security testers:-
1. They would first try to infiltrate into a computer system where the software has been installed without any knowledge of the computer system itself. The objective is to check whether the computer system can be hacked easily by an outsider without any knowledge of what lies within the computer.
2. The second step is much more difficult. Here the software security testers will be equipped with the knowledge of what lies in the computer, and will try to hack into the system. Of course, they will not use the passwords and usernames they know, but at least they will know the file organization of the computer and will know how to hack into it. Several methods are being employed by software developers to make their software products more and more secure, and not without reason. Good software development security does ensure a good software product that rises above the competition.
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