In this day and age, the way we do business has raised the demand for Web application security testing services. Every progressive and successful company nowadays has their own Web site or web application. Since the 1990s, more and more businesses have extended their presence online. The Internet is no longer just a place to place an online catalog in, but it has expanded to e-commerce and customer relations management. More and more businesses currently accept and fulfill orders online. Moreover, an increasing number of businesses have moved their processes into cloud computing. Data and information migrate from physical offices to the Web storage.
This would not have been possible if not for the various Web applications and software that have come out during the past few years. However not all Web application is created equal and not all of them are 100% secure. This is where Web application security assessment comes in.
Without secure Web applications, all of these processes will fail, leaving you in the dust!
Web application security testing is a type of penetration testing that scrutinizes the Web applications and client server applications found in a computer system. Any application that is on the Web or is accessible by people outside of your organization may be tested.
Web application testing typically evaluates and assesses the security measures in your interactive Web sites, which may include applications like extranet services, order forms, contact forms and e-commerce systems. Web application security testing may also be conducted on the company’s customer database, especially if this is shared over the Web.
The bottom line is that Web application security is important in conducting business online. Would you trust your financial data onto some system that you know is not secure? Your customers would be adamant about having private personal information kept safe too.
There are a lot of security audit companies that offer Web application security testing services, so a typical company can have their pick on testing providers at a price that they can afford. Companies could avail of bundled security testing services, or just this particular testing service. This ensures that you can have the level of security assessment you need and not pay for security testing that you do not need. Read how to choose a penetration testing company to select the best suited company for you.
Not Just Quality Assessment, you need more than that..
Do not be lulled by a false sense of security. If you think that quality assurance is enough guarantee that your applications are secure, you are wrong. There are processes that even the most thorough quality assurance procedures would not be able to test. There are procedures in web application security testing that goes beyond quality assurance. Further, if you think that a network firewall would secure your systems, think again. There are attacks that even the most popular firewalls can not protect against.
Web application testing should be able to tell you if you have enough security measures in place, and if you have security issues that you should be aware of. More than this, experienced consultants could peruse thousands of lines of codes and determine vulnerabilities in such a way that automated software can not.
Web application security assessment covers a lot of areas. To be sure, find out what type of application you have and what kind of testing you want to be done on them. The more prevalent Web application testing areas are on authorization and authentication, account management, meta character stripping, encryption, parameter tampering, session management, hidden field manipulation, script injection attacks, vulnerabilities in forms, buffer overflow checks, forceful browsing, character bounds checks, debugging, and known software vulnerabilities.

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there,
Good post, I just found it and I am already a fan.
Good insight and well written. While I agree to most of the points, still I feel only security assessment won’t be enough if the training and knowledge of secure webapp development is missing.
Web applications act as interface for service provider and receiver. Not surprisingly, hackers are always on the lookout for vulnerabilities in web applications. Roy hit the nail on the head. Web application security is important not only to provide secure interface, but also to protect the information repositories connected to them. However, is it enough to have a web security assessment? Organizations are now relying on the services of a certified ethical hacker to assess, explore, attack and mitigate vulnerabilities in the IT security infrastructure.
It also assesses the impact of such attacks on your business and provides the ability to quantify the business risk and determine what you need to implement a solution