How can you create a security testing culture that keeps pace with technological change?

1 Define your security goals and metrics

The first step to creating a security testing culture is to define what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. You need to align your security goals with your business objectives, user needs, and regulatory requirements. You also need to establish clear and relevant metrics that track your security performance, such as vulnerability detection, remediation, and prevention rates, user feedback, and compliance audits. These metrics will help you monitor your progress, identify gaps, and prioritize actions.

2 Assign security roles and responsibilities

The next step is to assign security roles and responsibilities to your team members and stakeholders. Everyone must understand their security duties and expectations, as well as how they contribute to the overall security testing process. It is also essential to provide adequate training, tools, and resources for them to perform their tasks effectively. Common security roles include a security champion who advocates for best practices, educates others, and coordinates activities; a security tester who performs threat modeling, risk analysis, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and code review; a security analyst who analyzes data, reports, and feedback; and a security manager who oversees the strategy, policy, and governance. All of these roles are necessary for ensuring alignment with the business goals and standards.

4 Communicate and collaborate on security issues

The fourth step is to communicate and collaborate on security issues with your team, stakeholders, and users. To create a secure environment, you should promote transparency and openness when it comes to security issues. Additionally, it’s important to foster a collaborative culture where security issues are shared, learned from, and prevented across teams and projects. To improve communication and collaboration on security issues, consider establishing a clear and consistent security reporting system, holding regular reviews and retrospectives to discuss security findings, creating a knowledge base to document best practices, and soliciting user feedback on security features.

5 Reward and recognize security achievements

The fifth step is to reward and recognize security achievements among your team, stakeholders, and users. To create a positive and motivating culture, you should appreciate and celebrate security efforts and outcomes, as well as view security challenges and failures as opportunities for improvement and innovation. Incentives, such as bonuses, prizes, or badges, can be provided for achieving security goals, metrics, or standards. Additionally, it's beneficial to highlight and showcase success stories of resolving critical vulnerabilities or preventing breaches. Offering opportunities for developing security skills, knowledge, or expertise is also important. Finally, encouraging and supporting security initiatives like hosting a security hackathon or joining a security community can be beneficial.

6 Review and improve your security testing culture

The sixth and final step is to review and improve your security testing culture periodically and continuously. Evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of your security testing process, practices, and culture is necessary to identify areas for improvement. Additionally, you should stay abreast of the changing technology, threat, and business landscape by updating your security testing goals, metrics, and standards. To review and improve your security testing culture, consider conducting a security testing maturity assessment with a framework or questionnaire. Also, perform a security testing gap analysis with a SWOT or PESTLE analysis. Additionally, implement a security testing improvement plan with a SMART or PDCA model. Finally, seek external feedback and guidance from a security consultant, auditor, or peer to gain an unbiased perspective on your security testing performance and culture.