Best Practices for Web Security

There is more to security audits than just testing websites and web apps. The following article explains some useful practices regarding the same.

 

Security audit might very well be one of the things you totally hate about the corporate scenario, but it undoubtedly is crucial for any organization. Use of websites and web apps in any company is unavoidable and so is the risk of data leakage that can result from the vulnerability of these apps to hackers, not to mention that this leaked data might contain confidential data about companies, such as product pricing, inventory details and trade secrets.

Exposure of corporate secrets to competitors is a great fear factor for companies, which is why most of them go for regular web application security assessment. This assessment is mainly about ensuring that a website or web application is immune to the attacks of hackers. Security assessment is not just a standalone task. It is rather a pretty lengthy process involving multiple stages such as penetration testing and security audits.

A website security audit happens to be one of the least favorite processes in a company. Needless to say, nobody is expected to enjoy while outsiders are poking around their work space looking for security flaws in their system. An audit is usually assumed to be some sort of a surprise check carried out by auditors with the intention of exposing the IT loopholes in a company. But employees often fail to realize that they will also get victimized in the event of a security breach. Audits are aimed at securing not only the business apps but also the private details of employees manipulated by these apps while they use them. 

Content Source: http://avyaanwebsecurity.tumblr.com/post/147933450293/best-practices-for-web-security

Social Engineering is a Crucial Part of Penetration Testing

Now that the eerie face of cyber-crime has finally revealed itself, people all over the world are more alert than ever in regard to the software applications they use be it web apps or mobile apps. Internet privacy, contrary to the claims of some hackers, may not exactly be a myth, but it does face a great danger due to these hackers.

Hackers or black hats as they are otherwise referred to, are not like other criminals like thugs and murderers committing the offense personally and taking the risk of getting caught. Black hats plan each of their moves meticulously and the worst part is that they have more than enough time to cover their tracks. By the time you figure out the IP address of the computer through which your mobile app was hacked, the hacker would already have extracted the information he/she needs. This is a critical issue and companies all over the world who deploy apps for varied reasons are trying to resolve it. External penetration testing so far has been the most widely adopted solution.

Penetration testing in simple terms, is the process of testing the security of a web application or mobile application by subjecting it to attacks. These attacks are engineered by professionals known as ethical hackers or pen-testers. Equaling black hats in technical proficiency, ethical hackers break security protocols of applications only with the intention of evaluating and improving them. It takes many punches for one to know how many punches he/she can take. Same is the logic behind penetration testing services.

Originally Posted on: https://medium.com/@Avyaan/social-engineering-is-a-crucial-part-of-penetration-testing-a37db36e91de#.wvp9sbzb9