Digital data is the newly found gold mine with unlimited resources of “treasure.” And hackers will stop at nothing to seize your data if they know it’s priceless. A study conducted by cybersecurity experts at Maryland University proves the situation is serious. The study reveals that cyberattacks happen once every 39 seconds. It also warns that the implications of these attacks will affect one out of every three American citizens.
Cybersecurity is now a top priority. The demand for cybersecurity experts also makes it a promising career opportunity for candidates seeking QA jobs in USA. Yes, you heard that right. Cybersecurity and Quality Assurance is making headlines as the new tech pair in town. And the reasons are obvious.
Integrating QA & Cybersecurity- What It Means For Global Businesses
QA and Cybersecurity may not sound like an ideal pair, but believe us when we say they are a match made in heaven! There are a number of reasons that explain this odd match:
- Evolving Threats
Take a look at these statistics:
- 200 billion devices are connected to the internet today
- 77% of American businesses lack the adequate measures for cybersecurity
Now put these two statistics together, and you will understand that America’s application security is far from ready to take on cybersecurity threats. These alarming statistics are the prime reason that calls for the integration of QA and cybersecurity.
- Risk management
A QA group’s role in a development lifecycle is to fill in any gaps to reduce the risk of a product failing to meet its standard or causing problems for the end-user. Similarly, cybersecurity processes such as Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST) concentrate on identifying security risks. MAST analyzes all potential risks with each option in its app, from authorization issues to knowledge vulnerabilities.
- Lesser workload
A robust and risk-free testing model makes QA jobs easier yet very much in demand.
With fewer security risks, the quality of the end product remains uncompromised. When the quality is better, it is easier to spot any cybersecurity risk. This coordination of QA and cybersecurity significantly reduces the workload for both departments.
- Better job prospects
As a prerequisite for QA jobs USA, organizations expect QA testers, developers, and data scientists to have a solid understanding of security. To cater to this demand, training institutions and web-based universities are making changes to their syllabi. Students are being exposed to real-world experience with hands-on training on cybersecurity measures. When they graduate, they will be armed to choose any job, be it cybersecurity, business management, data science, software testing, or software development. In fact, as future security experts, they will be well-versed in integrating their expertise with the existing QA framework, regardless of the role they perform.
How To Secure Your Systems With Cybersecurity & QA Expertise
It takes a double-pronged approach to combat threats from hackers and safeguard your systems. We need to implement international security measures and also focus on the application risks. Such an approach is possible only by harnessing the combined power of your QA and cybersecurity teams.
Together, they can work on these various vulnerable areas where security needs to be ramped up.
- Application security
Application security is a continuous, non-stop process, right from the project commencement to the product release. You need well-planned security measures to avoid application security leaks and other impending vulnerabilities. Another word of caution- do not postpone security reviews if you do not want any delay in releasing your product.
- Access control
Securing access to data is more than half the work done. Your teams should work on watertight security measures to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. You can also enable role-based authentication to allow restricted access to certain information and application functions.
- Restricted signing-in
Implementing a single sign-on option is a reliable way to gain control over user access and security management. However, this option requires a lot of planning and collaboration between your QA and cybersecurity teams.
- Data management
Like we earlier mentioned, your data is now your prime asset. Therefore, the measures to protect data have to be risk-free with no-compromise security policies. Even the slightest technical vulnerability puts your organizational data at risk. The measures devised and implemented to safeguard your data will prove the expertise of your QA and cybersecurity teams.
Now that we’ve analyzed the areas that need more care, we need to know how to get things going. Here’s a 4-step agile methodology to harness your QA and cybersecurity team to plan your security projects:
- Comprehensive planning
As the first step to getting your project on the floor, your teams will review all the vulnerabilities, existing risks, and security loopholes that require fixing. If possible, they should triage these risks and make a priority list.
2. In-depth review
The next step is to list down all the high and low-risk scenarios and devise solutions for each one of them. Your review should include all the risks posed by hackers, including those that exist and impending risks that you could face in the future.
3. Extensive development
In the third phase, your development and security teams will collaborate to periodically review your security measures. While the development team reviews the application’s logic and functionality, your security team ensures that no new vulnerabilities are introduced as the code is being written.
4. Robust testing
This phase will require the combined collaboration of your QA testers and cybersecurity specialists. Together they will perform all the latest and proven security, functionality, and logic tests.
5. Full-scale implementation
At this point, the application implementation is complete. However, it is important to run retrospective reviews to analyze the success and sore points and set them right without delay.
6. Continuous maintenance
The team’s work isn’t over even after an application has been successfully placed in production. They will continue to maintain it for a specific period that has been defined in advance. In this phase, any missed-out issues are addressed, and changes to the functionality or security are tailored to your client’s needs.
QA & Cybersecurity: A Formidable Team
In an age where hackers and cybercriminals are getting cleverer, the combined defense of QA and Cybersecurity is the best solution. Security ought to be integrated as a top-of-mind priority for everyone involved in the testing infrastructure. Do that, and your QA experts, developers, and cybersecurity teams will be able to breathe a little easier.
