The Hidden Costs of Neglecting Security Testing

What is Security testing?

The surge in cyber-attacks in recent years has elevated cybersecurity as a major and critical concern for digital enterprises across all industries. Whether a startup, SMB, Multinational Corporation or a leading global enterprise, every organization faces potential threats from hackers who may exploit vulnerabilities.

Let us see some recent cyber-attacks as per latest reports:

• Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS), the state-owned agency responsible for air traffic control in Germany, has confirmed that it was the target of a cyberattack that has disrupted its office communications. The attack, discovered last week, affected the company’s administrative IT infrastructure but did not impact air traffic control operations.
• Medical Center Barbour, an Alabama-based healthcare provider, said it experienced a data security incident that compromised the sensitive personal information of its patients and staff.
• Hackers stole about $27 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Penpie decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. Penpie confirmed in a statement that $27,348,259 worth of Ethereum was taken, and they have shut down withdrawals and deposits.
• A major cryptocurrency exchange in Southeast Asia has paused operations after $22 million in coins was stolen. Jakarta-based Indodax, which says it has more than 6 million users, told customers that it discovered a security issue on its platform and has shut down its services.

Businesses need to leverage security testing to overcome cyber threats and vulnerabilities across applications, systems, networks, or infrastructure. This software testing type revolves around identifying and mitigating cyber threats and vulnerabilities within applications or across organizations’ systems, networks, or infrastructure.

Security testing improves an organization’s security posture protecting it from cyber threats. By adopting security testing, businesses can ensure their assets and systems are safeguarded and protected from any security gaps, threats, and vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited by hackers or cyber criminals. Some of the key principles of security testing include Confidentiality, Integrity, Authenticity, Authorization, and Non-repudiation. But, if organizations neglect the process of adopting security testing, they are bound to incur costs due to security breaches.

Why is Security Testing important for enterprises and digital businesses?

Today’s digital businesses are more vulnerable to cyber threats and vulnerabilities but leveraging security protects them in many ways such as:

• Protects businesses from threats and vulnerabilities and protects from incurring financial losses
• Protects sensitive data from hackers and keeps them safe and secure
• Ensures regulatory compliance such that businesses abide by the compliance requirements
• Protects systems and apps from the possibility of any downtime due to system crashes due to various types of cyber attacks
• Protects brand reputation by securing data, and applications being compromised

However, many enterprises are not adopting security testing and thus are exposed to the increasing cyber-attacks and are bound to incur some hidden costs due to neglecting security testing that have been stated below.

What are the hidden costs incurred by businesses of neglecting Security Testing?

According to the report by the cyber security firm eSentire, the cost of cyber-attacks is predicted to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. A Study by IBM and the Ponemon Institute showed that the standard overall cost of the breach is $4.35 million, with a crucial infrastructure data breach averaging a price of $4.82 million. The ASD Cyber Threat Report 2022-2023 found that the average cost of cybercrime rose 14%, with small businesses facing average losses of $46,000 per incident and medium businesses $97,200.

A data breach or a cyber-attack would cause many hidden costs to businesses in various forms which include:

• Brand reputation suffers as customer trust decreases: Cyber-attacks and downtime due to compromised security measures bring in fines and financial losses to businesses. If a business struggles with its own security then customers lose faith in the business which leads to the disappearing of potential sales and business opportunities. This is further compounded by negative publicity and leads to loss of brand reputation which affects your business bottom line. Customers expect businesses to protect their data as a fundamental obligation. A 2023 survey by the OAIC found that 70% of Australians deemed privacy as extremely or very important when selecting products or services.
• Financial impact: Neglecting cybersecurity can lead to significant financial repercussions, such as fines and compensation expenses. Regulatory authorities may impose penalties for failing to comply with data protection laws, while affected customers or partners may file compensation claims, further increasing the operational costs for businesses. These financial burdens directly impact businesses’ profitability and lead to a considerable drain on its financial resources.
• Regulatory compliance: In many industries including finance, health, and governance, they need to adhere to strict regulations and are required to take up security testing. Situations of non-compliance make these businesses pay hefty fines and obstacles carrying out their own business. Each of the businesses should abide by the below compliances across regions:
  ✅The GDPR applies to organizations that handle information about individuals in the EU region.
  ✅The Gramm-Leach-Biley Act applies to financial services providers.
  ✅The HIPAA applies to all healthcare providers.
  ✅Some states like California enforce the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) grants consumers control over their personal information.

Non-compliance by organizations leads to hefty fines, legal fees, and restitution from law suits.

• Operational downtime: This is an important hidden cost for businesses suffering with malware or a phishing attack resulting in significant downtime. Until the system is restored, users may not perform their activities which results in a great financial loss to businesses.
• Increased premiums: Today, many businesses are taking up cybersecurity insurance to protect themselves from digital threats and comply with the local country regulations which lead to increased premium rates.
• Intellectual property theft: A cybersecurity breach, such as a phishing attack, malware infection, or system vulnerability exploitation, can lead to data loss. This lost data may include sensitive information like customer details, employee records, confidential business reports, or valuable intellectual property. Further, trade secrets, patent information, or other intellectual property theft might harm your organization and might restrict its competitive advantage over others. Specifically, document locking can significantly lock down information to outsiders and make it available only to employees, customers, and others who are eligible to access the information.

How to overcome the losses incurred due to neglecting Security Testing?

Security testing helps businesses to overcome different forms of cyber-attacks such as SQL injection, Malware, Phishing, Man-in-the-middle, DDoS, Password, Botnet, IP Spoofing, Ransomware, etc. There are various security testing methods listed below that enterprises and digital businesses need to adopt to overcome the hidden costs of neglecting security testing and protecting their businesses from financial losses, reputational damage, or others already stated above.

Penetration testing or Ethical Hacking: This pen testing is an important security testing method that should be taken up to detect recently discovered or any previously known vulnerabilities or weaknesses in businesses’ networks, systems, and applications. This testing method helps to identify vulnerabilities in a system that might impact the integrity and confidentiality of data by emulating a real attack.

Vulnerability scanning: This scanning method involves assessing, prioritizing, and mitigating security vulnerabilities in the systems and applications through regular scanning, patching, and monitoring. This vulnerability scanning method helps to protect against potential threats and helps to minimize risks, ensuring overall security and integrity.

Web application security testing: It is a process of identifying, preventing, and mitigating security vulnerabilities in web applications and involves assessing the security of web applications by observing the application code, architecture, and deployment environment. Web application security testing helps organizations comply with industry regulations and standards such as PCI DSS and HIPAA.

Cloud security testing: This security testing method ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of cloud-based resources by ensuring proper data, applications, and infrastructure protection in cloud environments from threats. The testing method involves implementing access controls, encryption, monitoring, and compliance measures to safeguard against threats, data breaches, and cyber-attacks.

Mobile application security testing: This is a security testing method that promptly analyzes mobile apps for potential threats to prevent data theft. It is performed using various automated testing tools to help detect security threats early and minimize their impact on the software development life cycle. A combination of dynamic, static and penetration testing should be undertaken on mobile apps to protect them.

Red Teaming: It is a form of ethical hacking in which a designated team (the Red Team) acts as adversaries to exploit weaknesses in an organization’s cybersecurity defenses. These assessments are comprehensive, multi-layered attacks against an organization’s people, processes, and technology with a primary of trying to find vulnerabilities. It helps to see how well the organization’s security posture matches a simulated attack under real-world conditions.

Why should businesses consider embedding security testing as an integral part of DevOps?

Security testing should be an integral part of the DevOps environment as it ensures continuous security checks throughout the DevOps CI/CD pipeline implementations. Embedding security testing within the DevOps CI/CD pipelines helps testers to identify and rectify bugs early in the software development lifecycle along with ensuring safer, secure, and resilient software. Further, it also reduces any hidden expenses that might be incurred if security testing is not embedded and ensures faster release of secured software. It also provides transparency from the initial phase of the software development process.

Why choose a trusted and experienced security testing services provider?

Businesses should leverage the services of a trusted and well-reputed testing services provider who has been serving clients for longer times. Each enterprise has unique security requirements and needs effective and customized security methods to overcome threats and vulnerabilities.  The testing services provider should have a team of cloud security experts who have wide experience in managing cyber threats through enabling various security testing methods. The teams should have experience in using various types of security testing tools to deliver automated and quicker test results to organizations, thus protecting them from any possible attacks and at the same time safeguarding them from encountering any hidden costs.