What are the most important skills for testing software security and privacy?

Instead of asking "how could this software be used?", ask "how could this be abused?" For example, if you have a dashboard of user email addresses, this is often tested to ensure it can be sorted, searched, and has all the right functionality. For security and privacy, we want to limit access to personal information. If the data were to be accessed, what harm could come to the individual? Could be minimal (email address added to mailing lists) or severe (reputational risk or financial harm). Depending on the level of risk, safeguards should be put in place to limit the access (sign-ons, roles based access to various data elements, hashed values on dashboards etc). Privacy by Design decisions help mitigate breaches, and protect individuals.

1) A better understanding of security fundamentals like cryptography, authentication and authorization. 2) Proficient in programming languages like Python, one of the most popular programming language (easy to use), and bash. 3) Understanding network protocols and being familiar with configuring and analyzing firewall and IDS rules. 4) Proficient in security testing tools like Metasploit, Burp Suite, and OWASP ZAP for finding vulnerabilities. 5) Be aware of industry security standards and the knowledge of regulations. 6) Good communication skills. 7) Critical thinking and problem-solving. 8) Security risk assessment.

Threat modelling is the first step towards building a secure by design product. In my opinion threat modelling should commence from Day 1 along with Software and product design. Understand the assets to be protected, understand the boundaries, understand the product environment and build a threat model to make sure all scenarios are covered. Understanding the product environment is highly critical to avoid gold plating or underestimating the security threats. Product environment can help defining the trusted and untrusted boundaries and potentially define the security measures to protect the data. Threat model also becomes a solid input for PEN testing. Use Microsoft threat modelling tool or build your own model from scratch on Lucid charts

As a developer, I think understanding tech-stacks, infrastructure, common attack vectors, areas of high CVE vulnerabilities, supply chain vectors early and use them to design the architecture to reduce those challenges will give you a better baseline before you focus on threat modelling. If you design things to keep the attack surface low, you have a better chance of getting to a state where you actually can benefit from the advice in this article. So the most important skill-set is understanding whats really happening tech-wise and avoid "magic" that you do not understand which can have all kinds of open backdoor++

Good knowledge on operating system. Good knowledge of networking and network protocols. scripting skills so you can automate some real world scenarios How to configure firewall to block/allow some traffic

- One of the success factors of a good code review is small pull requests. To achieve small pull requests, it is highly recommended to create smaller stories and also trying to break a story into smaller tasks and allow a pull request per task as long as the code is buildable and deployable. - One of good code reviewer habit is to pull the branch locally and try to run it and make a quick smoke test locally. Please note that while I recommend these, sometimes big pull requests are un-avoidable also running a branch locally might be challenging and/or time consuming, so please apply common sense too.

1. Understand the requirements for which the code is written. Very often, syntactical and superficial code review goals override the real motive behind the code review. So understanding the component under review, its interactions with other components and fitment into overall software design is most critical aspect 2. The amount of code to be reviewed within designated time is important 3. Format of code review meetings - author, moderator and reviewer must know their roles and work accordingly 4. With the latest developments on Generative AI especially Co-pilots can simplify and assist for code review. Understand the strength of these tools and use them where ever possible

Code review also makes sure that changes are done like adding new features and tracking them via easily trackable applications as what changes made, who done the changes, what is peer review feedback. This all needs to be saved for further use in order to track the issues so these reviews are very useful.

Code review is like a team game - it's not just for tech folks. We follow a clear and organized process involving both tech and non-tech teams. When we do product demos and check important documents like specs and low level designs, it's not just about the code details; it's about getting a full picture. Code review isn't only about finding mistakes; it's also about sharing what we know. I think of peer programming as a kind of casual code review. It's not strict, but it's a great way for the team to learn and work together. I really believe that code review is a big deal for the design team. It's how we make sure our code is readable, maintainable and extensible. Code reviews are like planting seeds for the success of the whole team.

Combining Code Reviews with a code analysis tool like SonarQube brings efficiency to the process and reveals code smells and insecure code that might have been missed

In my experience, simulation of realistic scenarios is the best way to test software systems. Pentesting is used to detect security and privacy vulnerabilities via real-world attack simulations. Penetration testing can be done externally or internally. Test team tries to access the system by exploiting network level vulnerabilities such as exposed ports, or internal vulnerabilities of the application via injection attacks such as SQL injection. New software vulnerabilities are detected in operating systems and open source libraries everyday and hackers enhance their penetration techniques continuously. The best software security practice is to run vulnerability scanning at least once a month and apply penetration testing periodically.

Expertise in Ethical hacking principles is the backbone of penetration testing. Up to date knowledge of common attacks coupled with various state of the art testing tools can be an added advantage in my view.

There is no cookie-cutter answer to this question, as the best/most efficient testing method will vary depending on your use case. That being said, regular pentests should definitely be included in test strategies, no matter the case. It's usually not enough on its own, but it will cover most of the vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit. To really lower the risks however, it's better to conjugate it with one or more of the other methods listed in this post. Pentesting is good, but it really shines when it comes with solid complementary measures!

This proactive approach should involve simulating cyberattacks under controlled conditions to identify weaknesses. It's not just about finding vulnerabilities but also understanding how they can be exploited and the potential impact. This hands-on approach is vital for uncovering real-world security flaws that might be obscure in a theoretical or automated analysis.

Penetration Testing: :crucial should be be done like Jnit Test case framework for initial vulnerability : Use the hackers Mind to do ethically . : recall those repetitive test and automate it :

Privacy engineering is the practice of incorporating privacy principles into the design, development, and implementation of technology systems, processes, and practices. It involves building tools and processes that apply privacy protections to personal data. Privacy engineering is a specialty discipline of systems engineering. Privacy engineering increases the consumers' trust that their data is safe because the privacy has been ingrained in the system. Privacy is the default setting as it's embedded in design.

Privacy principles like data minimization and purpose limitation can guide designing experiences customers trust. 'Anonymization' and 'pseudonymization' limit exposure where possible. I believe privacy enables lasting bonds between users and companies. Handled properly, it is a competitive advantage versus liability.

By embedding privacy into the system architecture and business processes, privacy engineering not only helps organizations comply with stringent data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA, but also builds trust with users. This trust is essential for maintaining a positive brand reputation and customer loyalty. Furthermore, privacy engineering proactively addresses potential privacy risks, reducing the likelihood of costly data breaches and the associated legal and financial repercussions. In essence, privacy engineering is not just about compliance, but about creating a culture of respect for individual privacy, which is a cornerstone of ethical business practices in the modern digital world.

Privacy engineering is the cornerstone of software design, combining principles, regulations, and technical solutions to protect user privacy. It goes beyond legal obligations, emphasizing data minimization, purpose limitation, and user consent. Navigating regulations like GDPR and CCPA, it ensures compliance and incorporates proactive measures such as Privacy Impact Assessments and encryption to build trustworthy software with user-centric transparency.

Once the privacy elements are adhered to and the regulations satisfied, an effective application of privacy engineering can help increase consumer trust in our software. We can assure consumers that their data will not be subjected to misuse. It's beneficial to have knowledge of privacy regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, PDPA, among others.

Automated security testing (AST) is the process of using automated tools to scan applications for vulnerabilities. This can help prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited by hackers. Automated security testing also helps you enforce policies to prevent hackers from using your software and applications to gain unauthorized access. These bad actors may exploit weaknesses in your code to release malware, hijack your systems, or steal information.

Security testing reveals vulnerabilities, threats, and risks in any software applications, aiming to identify all potential loopholes and weaknesses. Automated security testing safeguards products and the business from attacks. It reduces manual errors, enables early security intervention, streamlines development and provides swift feedback on issues and challenges. Successful automated security testing demands careful planning, maintenance and the selection of suitable tools and frameworks. It is not a universal solution and should be supplemented with manual testing to ensure thorough software testing.

By automating security testing, organizations can efficiently scan for a wide range of threats, from simple coding errors to complex system weaknesses, at a much faster rate than manual testing. This not only enhances the effectiveness of security measures but also integrates seamlessly into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, ensuring that security is a consistent part of the development lifecycle. Automated security testing is crucial in early detection of vulnerabilities, reducing the time and resources spent on fixing security flaws post-deployment. As cyber threats evolve rapidly, automated security testing becomes indispensable in building and maintaining resilient and secure software applications.

The goal is to ensure that the security measures in place are effective and to discover and address potential security threats before they can be exploited by malicious actors. The key aspects of security testing automation: - Security Testing. - Automation Tools - CI/CD Integerations. - Penetration Testing Automation. - API Security Testing. -Reporting and Remediation

Security Testing Automation: - Automate repetitive security testing tasks like web vulnerability scanning and static code analysis. - Use continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to integrate security testing into the development process. - Free up security testers to focus on complex manual testing tasks. - Develop custom security testing scripts and tools for specific needs.

Security awareness skills are important for everyone in software engineering. Most of the time mistakes happen because of lack of awareness. There are multitude of tools especially in .NET to find out security issues for example Sonar for code security vulnerabilities and Dependency tracker to track security vulnerabilities in nuget packages etc.. ISO27001 also helps us understand the security vulnerabilities of our project.

Staying informed on emerging threats and defenses is essential. This strengthens communications providing actionable guidance customized to organizational needs (getting stakeholders invested). People feel heard and supported to participate in shared security versus forced compliance. Together we cultivate an environment enabling everyone to contribute to our collective safety.

The first and foremost thing you can do for the security of the software is to hire developers with a "security mindset". It means the person thinks about how he/she could harm the software as a malicious user. This kind of developer will care about the security loopholes and fill them in.

A maioria das vezes conseguimos fazer proposi??es assertivas para mitigar os riscos técnicos e até mesmo conscientizar a importancia das medidas de seguran?a junto com os nossos clientes. Os ataques baseados em engenharia social vem se mostrando muito eficiente, onde as pessoas s?o o alvo e n?o a tecnologia. Desta forma, além de mitigar as brechas técnicas devemos trabalhar a conscientiza??o dos clientes e também dos times de suprimentos que passaram a ser os novos alvos dos ataques de engenharia social.

Maintaining relevance and staying updated with the latest threats and trends is crucial. It's also important to provide simulations or exercises based on these threats. Additionally, implementing random sampling can be beneficial.

Knowing OS internals and how compilers construct assembly code is hugely useful. Basically know the software that's running your software. Understand how code exploits work in depth.

Understanding of the software vulnerabilities like owasp top 10 could be a good starting point to help prioritise the efforts in testing most common vulnerabilities. Understanding the business use cases can help test the application specific security issues like fraudulent actions.

Never trust inputs which comes from user, always expect worse or awkward. Find a professional penetration tester to see if they can find an exploit to crush your application, This applies to games/webapps/desktop apps any software which has interaction with user. We as developers always have to be on defense mode when it comes to user inputs.

La seguridad en los sistemas es un tema muy amplio, pero la primer línea siempre serán los usuarios, las campa?as de concientización sobre amenazas cibernéticas y sobre todo la evaluación continua (no periódica) de los sistemas y la validación de vulnerabilidades tanto en los componentes propios como de terceros

One handy tip that's quite easy to implement is to always be paranoid when writing any code that's exposed via a user facing API. As it's open to the world to consume, assume it'll be abused by a knowledgeable hacker. Implement safeguards at every stage of the API. Use an authorizer on the API if applicable. Validate and sanitize every single user parameter. The stricter you can be the more secure it'll be. Forbid special characters that don't make sense for the user input. This can eliminate a lot of attacks just by reducing the types of characters a hacker can submit to your API. For example, if you're accepting the name of a user as an input, it doesn't make sense to allow ' " or & as part of the input, so forbid it or strip it out.