Integrating Software Cybersecurity & Quality Assurance Is A Great Idea!

Cybersecurity should be a priority in the product lifecycle.

Since the world around us is rapidly becoming digital day after day, cybersecurity is a necessary watchdog. Digital data is flooding from industrial use and personal use is flooding the clouds and hackers will leave no stone unturned to get to the precious data. In a study conducted by cybersecurity experts at Maryland University, the research team found that cyberattacks occur once every 39 seconds. Maryland University is one of the first organizations that quantified cyberattacks. According to their study, one out of three U.S citizens is affected by these cyberattacks.

IoT is a rapidly growing technology and the number of connected devices in today's day is estimated to be around 200 million, and the fact that 77% of America's organizations have no cybersecurity response system in place means that America's application security is far from secure from the rapid-threat imposed by cyberhackers. These alarming statistics are the reason why cybersecurity is the need of the hour and why it goes hand in hand with quality assurance's key processes.

Quality Assurance And Cybersecurity Is About Risk Prevention

In the entire development lifecycle of a product, quality assurance teams work to fill the gaps to minimize risks to the end quality of the product or user experience. Whereas cybersecurity functions like Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST) work to detect security-related threats. Right from authorization concerns to data vulnerabilities, MAST works to analyze all the potential risks that might be associated with every possible action on that application.

As a matter of fact, this type of testing makes the job of quality assurance teams easier in many ways. When there are fewer security risks, there is less risk to the overall quality of the application's software. This results in better quality which makes it easier to spot any unforeseen cybersecurity threats. Quality assurance's intersection with cybersecurity for risk management, coordinating with one another can essentially lighten the workload of both teams.

Security testing is seeing a shift. In simpler terms, this means that cybersecurity or application security training is now being combined within a software developer's daily responsibilities. Rather than being a side step in the development lifecycle of the application, this shift means that cybersecurity is becoming an ingrained part of the quality assurance testing process. While building the test infrastructure, current software developers, data scientists, and quality assurance testers will have to have a solid knowledge of security.

Inclusion In Academics

A similar shift towards cybersecurity can be seen in technology training institutions, like Maryville University. The online school aims at producing skillful developers and software experts and for this, their many programs are developed with cybersecurity inclusion in mind. The school's online bachelor's in cybersecurity is designed to be paired with its masters-level data science, software development, and MBA courses. These integrations give students real-world skills and experience in cybersecurity work. After they graduate, they will have the necessary updated skills required to be in the tech world and will make them a blued quality assurance expert.

Currently, no department and organization, ranging from government officers to social media platforms, and tech giants are safe from hackers. To counter this, the integration of cybersecurity and quality assurance will make the best defense to detect unforeseen threats before it's too late. With cybersecurity becoming the top priority, security experts, software developers, and quality assurance teams can breathe a sigh of relief.