How do you evaluate the efficiency of security testing?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you start any security testing, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. Your goals and metrics should align with your security objectives, risk appetite, and compliance requirements. For example, you may want to test the resilience of your web application against common attacks, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting, and use metrics such as number of vulnerabilities detected, severity level, and remediation time.

2 Choose the right testing methods and tools

When choosing testing methods and tools for your system, you should consider your goals and metrics. Static analysis involves examining source code or configuration files to identify potential flaws or weaknesses, and can be automated with code analyzers, scanners, or linters. Dynamic analysis tests the system while running to observe its behavior and response to various inputs, and can be simulated with web application scanners, fuzzers, or penetration testing tools. Manual testing relies on human expertise and creativity to find vulnerabilities that automated tools may miss, and can be aided by proxies, debuggers, or exploit frameworks. It's important to choose methods and tools that best suit your system, budget, and skill level - considering coverage, accuracy, and scalability.

3 Perform the testing and collect the data

Once you have selected the testing methods and tools, you need to perform the testing and collect the data. To ensure consistency and validity of the testing, you should follow a systematic and documented approach. Additionally, it's important to define the scope, boundaries, and rules of engagement for the testing to avoid any unwanted consequences or legal issues. You should record test cases with inputs, outputs, and expected results; test results with any vulnerabilities, errors, or anomalies; and test reports with goals, metrics, methods, tools, data, and conclusions.

4 Analyze the data and evaluate the efficiency

The final step is to analyze the data and evaluate the efficiency of the security testing. You should compare the actual results with the expected results and the metrics with the goals, as well as identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the testing. To assess the efficiency of the security testing and determine if you need to improve or modify your testing strategy, ask yourself questions such as: did the testing achieve its desired goals? How many vulnerabilities were detected and how severe were they? How long did it take and how much did it cost? Additionally, evaluate how accurate and reliable the methods and tools were, how comprehensive and thorough the coverage was, and how easy and feasible the process was for remediating vulnerabilities.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?