Contact us anytime to know more — Abhishek P., Founder & CFO CISIN
Application is the seventh layer, while Physical is the first. Suppose you have studied Networking and Security in college or are self-taught.
In that case, you will know that understanding all seven layers is an essential foundation for understanding any Network infrastructure. Every layer is susceptible to security threats in mobile and web computing. The excitement and concern for the end user are growing daily with the constant release of mobile apps and the increased use of mobile remote devices.
Mobile computing is now a part of our daily lives. Any company developing software must have a team of qualified testers available to assist them when needed.
These tips are for your QA team to assist with the initial steps into enterprise mobile security testing. Enterprises are changing dramatically in how they work today. Collaboration and communication have a significant impact on the way that companies operate.
Enterprise Mobility is a gateway for collaboration and communication to increase productivity and speed up decision-making.
Organizations must offer interactive and flexible applications that allow for interaction between clients, internal stakeholders, and business partners in light of the significant increase in Bring Your Own Device policy adoption.
Organizations have to rethink their QA strategy for mobile applications and devices. With the rapid development of technology and an increase in connected devices, mobile QA is becoming more complex. Mobile QA is becoming more popular, and organizations will need to improve their approach, quality standards, and team members.
Bring Your Own Device And Mobile Application Testing
While employee-owned devices may reduce costs (communication cost), they could also pose security risks as IT has no control over employees changing their mobile devices, updating operating systems, downloading apps, or misplacing their devices.
Other challenges include the need to establish best practices for managing multiple devices and apps that can be accessed via corporate networks via different mobile platforms.
The core QA focus of QA will shift from functionality and app users acceptance to security and performance, usability, and privacy.
Bring Your Own Device has become a requirement for companies that embrace it because of its impact on enterprise policies, data, and applications.
Your QA Team Should Start Enterprise Mobility Security Testing
Your QA Team Should Be Able To Learn About The OSI Model's Seven Layers
Your QA team will have confidence in mobile security testing when they can peel the onion. Each layer brings a new level of complexity and the precautions you need to take to protect them.
The Application layer supports end-user processes and applications. The Application layer also teaches you about HTTP, SSH and Telnet. The Presentation layer formats and encrypts data that is to be transmitted over a network.
The Session layer manages and terminates connections between applications. The Transport layer facilitates data transfer between hosts or end systems. It is also responsible for flow control and error recovery.
The Network layer deals with internetworking, error handling, congestion control, and other issues. You will find information about teardrop attacks (also known as denial-of-service attacks) within the Network layer.
Data Link layers encode and decode data packets. You will also learn about wireless man-in-the-middle attacks via the Data Link layer. The Physical layer allows hardware to send and receive data over a carrier.
You can also learn about Wi-Fi access points that may be rogue. Understanding the intercommunication between all these layers is crucial to create a security test framework.
Establish A Peer Testing Strategy For Development And QA
Security testing is best done with "all hands on deck". Many developers are skilled at implementing security in the apps that they create.
Unit testing is also performed by developers for these apps and the implemented features. Unit testing is done to verify that the code does not contain errors. Unit testing can also verify that a feature works as it should.
Unit testing does not always suffice to prevent what could happen to software security once it has been released. It was only sometimes sufficient to ensure that the software worked as expected. Your software design is only possible if your QA team participates in security testing.
They are capable of performing functional testing and usability testing. You can pair QA developers with developers who have never done security testing to teach them security policies details.
QA team members can also help developers develop test strategies to break the app's app security differently. This will make the product more viable. QA team members can help with best practices in mobile security implementation.
It'sIt's not only good for the product but also for your morale.
Your QA Team Should Create A Security Checklist Based On Industry And Client Standards
Test plans and test cases are created by QA team members. Each app needs a test plan and a unique set of test cases.
Certain aspects of security settings must be checked regardless of the app. A solid QA security checklist can help you with this. The checklist should cover user authentication (provider for authentication), login validation and confirmation of data storage, depending on the app.
Although some items on the checklist may be specific to each app, establishing standards is always a good idea. You can use industry standards to set standards for enterprise mobility testing with proper offboarding processes, error rates.
This article outlines some essential precautions to be taken regarding mobile security. It also discusses how many networks are vulnerable to "Man in the Middle" attacks.
Because many smartphones connect to the internet automatically, it is easy for a network to connect with a rogue device acting as an SSL proxy.
Your QA Team Should Be Familiarized With Third-Party Software Tools To Detect MITM Attacks
MITM assaults are also known as "Man in the Middle" assaults. MITM is when an attacker secretly relays or alters the communication between two parties, believing they are communicating directly.
Having your QA team familiarize themselves with third-party tools is a good idea. This can be tested in many ways, and many tools are available such as application logging tools, collaboration tools.
Charles Debugging Proxy is one tool that we used for general debugging. Charles can be used both for mobile and web debugging. You can also use Charles to test enterprise mobility security.
Your team can also proxy Charles to their mobile device. This will allow them to confirm that specific calls are working and encrypt the most important ones. If your app makes "HTTP" calls while you log in, you can see the username and password that Charles entered.
This will alert the team that the calls must be encrypted with "HTTPS". You will also see Charles firing if you make unnecessary calls that may expose your app to attack on android devices in a wide range.
Encourage your QA team members to do their research. This is the most important thing you can do to ensure enterprise mobility security well-being.
Our recommendations include attending seminars, joining security testing groups on LinkedIn, and attending seminars.
Bring Your Own Device And Key Factors To Consider When QA
- QA Strategy: A strong mobile QA strategy should focus on security, functionality and integration. Enterprise apps are extensions to legacy platforms and require special expertise in order to test their functionalities. To expose vulnerabilities that are not obvious from end-user interface testing, it would be a good strategy to incorporate a mobile QA strategy into release management.
- Test Automation: It is crucial to choose the right test automation tool in light of increasing mobile apps and Bring Your Own Device scenarios that use enterprise content. Manual testing will continue to be important, but Test Automation is becoming more crucial in delivering secure enterprise applications to avoid failure.
- Integration Testing: Mobile app upgrades can take time and require approval from the App Store. Bring Your Own Device means that the role of QA is more important. They must test the integration of hardware and software components and ensure that user expectations and industry standards are met.
Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!
Here Are Some Strong Tips To Help You Build An Enterprise Mobility Solution
The consumer sphere has seen a significant increase in mobile devices and mobile computing. It is also considered a productivity driver for the corporate world.
Gartner reports that half of the employers will support the Bring Your Own Device culture. Itinerant workers will make up almost 72% of the American workforce by the upcoming year.
According to the numbers, enterprise mobility is expected to be a core strategy for businesses in the near future.
Enterprise mobility does not mean having multiple mobile devices.This idea refers to a company's ability to adapt new technology to make them more beneficial to employees.
This strategy will have an enormous impact on how the company operates. It is, therefore, imperative that authorities examine all aspects of the mobility system for vulnerabilities.
Here are some of the best ways that industries can create a superior enterprise mobility solution:
- Understand Goals & Outcomes: It is common to see companies skip half the way. Instead of focusing on why employees need an Apple device, the authorities want to decide which version of IOS they will use. IWe need to figure out if our enterprise mobility strategy will help us create new opportunities and keep our customers happy. Entrepreneurs must assess if the current business model can accommodate mobility tools.
- Continuous Updates in Mobility Apps: There has been a steady but gradual change in how customers and employees use mobile phones. Entrepreneurs must keep the apps updated by adding new functionalities, icons, or buttons to ensure customer and employee retention.
- Platform Neutrality: Entrepreneurs need to judge the number of devices employees or customers will be using. By using a neutral platform, you can create enterprise mobility solution that will work for everyone. The rise of IoT, wearable technology and other technologies means that entrepreneurs can create strategies on neutral platforms to improve the usability of their mobile apps.
- Secure And Efficient Management Of Information: With multiple mobile apps, tracking information flow can become a difficult task. Entrepreneurs must monitor all information accessed via mobile devices due to security breaches and rampant hacking. The authorities are not experts in keeping information safe. Some firms might need to recruit entire teams to manage mobile apps and data security. These actions are all necessary because companies must ensure that confidential data is kept private with employees and not shared with third parties.
- Device Restrictions for Security Reasons: It is obvious that security concerns linger in offices with Bring Your Own Device policies or actual devices. Employees may become dissatisfied if they are blocked from accessing personal email addresses, video calling and social media. This could have an adverse effect on productivity. Owners must make sure that their employees are aware of the importance and teach them how to use their devices logs responsibly.
- Use Cloud: Enterprises can use real device cloud storage to protect data and other information and not store it on their employees' devices. Cloud service is a great option for creating an enterprise mobility strategy that does not put too much stress on IT or admin staff. Cloud services are able to adapt to changing technology and offer long-lasting solutions with dashboard views.
How To Create QA Processes Starting From Scratch
Customer satisfaction and retention are dependent on testing (visual testing, parallel testing, comprehensive testing, uninterrupted testing and other hundreds of tests)
Undiscovered bugs or defects will not make a software application unusable for users. Any bugs or defects that may have escaped production are more easily visible and will get more negative reviews from users.
This is the time when all stakeholders need to begin building a QA department. This usually involves hiring a senior Quality assurance tester and establishing a QA department.
This article will provide some guidelines on how to create a Quality Assurance program that meets the company's requirements and objectives.
Read More: The Value of Quality Assurance in the Custom Software Development
Common Problems With QA Process
There may be some issues when establishing quality assurance testing.
Where And How To Store Test Documentation?
Quality assurance professionals often work on multiple projects simultaneously. It is important to secure, categorize and save test data and documentation in such cases.
Although Google Drive is initially a good option, as projects and teams grow, it will make more sense for management to transfer the information to a professional tool for managing test results.
How Do You Train New QAs?
Newly hired staff must be educated about the business processes, ongoing source projects, and any other relevant data as a QA department expands.
This can be done by creating a knowledge base (or a cookbook) that explains how each quality assurance testing team works, the tools they use, the common bottlenecks, best practices, and the QA flow for projects. All the information is available in one place once a new QA engineer has joined. As QA processes change, do not forget to add new information.
How Can You Ensure Thorough Testing?
Testing bugs can be overlooked when working on multiple projects. A practical software testing checklist is a way to prevent this from happening.
It lists exactly what you need to test, verify, and check for.
How Do You Account For Personnel Changes?
Let us suppose a QA engineer is working on a large project and needs to take leave. The project must now be transferred to another QA engineer who might not have any context or knowledge of the project or its software structure.
It is much easier to create a map that outlines the structure and flow of each project rather than having to go through it all every time someone else joins. To understand the product and the testing methods, anyone new to a project can refer to the map. This problem can be solved by user management, access control, and version control of documents.
Why Should QA Processes Be Implemented?
Software Testing Quality Assurance is used to verify that the product has been built correctly and without many iterations.
A quality QA process is valuable because it clearly defines the requirements and provides testers with a detailed understanding of the features. It also gives them a roadmap for how they can proceed.
It is important to remember that testing should not be done in isolation from development. However, it should be supported by it.
In order to be ideal, testing should take place simultaneously with development. This means that you must test the code as soon as it is committed to the repository rather than waiting for the whole website or app to go live.
This means that one must use Agile methods to execute the QA process. Before you can implement a Quality Assurance process, it is important to understand all stages.
Stages In The QA Process
1. Analyze The Requirements
It is more expensive to fix bugs that have been discovered during testing than to prevent them from being found at the requirements design stage.
QA professionals need to be involved in the analysis and definition of software requirements, functional and non-functional. It is important that QAs are provided with consistent, complete, traceable, and clearly identified requirements. This allows the QA team to design enterprise mobile security software-specific tests.
2. Plan For The Tests
Test planning is based on the information gained during the requirements analysis phase. The test plan should include the software testing strategy, scope, budget, and deadlines.
The plan should outline the types of testing that are required, methods and tools to track bugs ( file bugs), as well as assign resources and responsibilities for individual testers.
3. Create The Tests
QA teams must create test cases and checklists that include the requirements of this stage. Every test case should contain the necessary data and conditions to verify each functionality.
Each test case must define the expected test outcome so testers can compare actual results. To get to know the software better, it is recommended that QAs do exploratory testing. This will help you design the right test cases.
Once an automation strategy is defined, it is possible to create automation testing QA scenarios. This stage is used to prepare the staging environment for execution.
The environment must closely match the production environment in terms of hardware, software and network configurations. You should also closely replicate other characteristics, such as database settings and system settings.
4. Perform Tests And Report Errors
Unit tests are performed by developers. Next, the quality assurance team conducts tests at API or UI levels. Manual tests are performed according to previously created test cases.
To ensure effective defect management, all bugs found are sent to a defect tracking system. Test automation engineers can also use automated testing frameworks such as Selenium Cypress or Appium to run test scripts and generate test summary reports.
5. Re-Tests Or Regression Tests
After bugs are reported and fixed, QAs run a second test to verify that no anomalies have been missed. Regression tests are also performed to ensure that the fixes do not affect existing functions.
6. Conduct Release Tests
The developers will issue a release notice that lists all features, bugs fixed, recurring problems, and limitations.
After this, the QA team must identify any functionalities affected. Next, the team must create modified test suites to cover the new build. To ensure that every build is stable, the QA team must also run smoke tests.
If the test passes, modified test suites can be run, and a report can be generated at the conclusion.
Configure The QA Process In Agile Environments
These are some simple ways to align your QA process with Agile development principles.
1. Make QA Results-Oriented
Agile development techniques prioritize smaller goals and targets, allowing them to be achieved in smaller steps with greater speed.
To be able to fit into this practice, QA processes should follow the same tactics – faster, more dynamic and more focused on specific goals.
2. Prioritize Transparency
Transparency is a benefit to any development approach, but especially for Agile success. It is essential that testers are clear about what the software should do, which features they need to test, and what "good" results look like.
This clarity allows teams to collaborate and test faster and delivers results in a shorter time frame.
3. Quality Assurance Testing Should Be An Ongoing Activity
Testing should not be delayed until the end. Tests must be performed after each code commit, as mentioned previously.
It should be done in every sprint so that teams can identify problems early.
4. Implement DevOps
DevOps uses Agile practices for QA and Ops teams to streamline the build, validation and deployment of software.
This eliminates conflicts between the development and QA teams. There are many other benefits:
- Developers have greater control over the production environment.
- Increases deployment frequency.
- New software releases have a lower failure rate.
- Increases the mean time to recovery.
- Software is released faster and with better quality.
- Market faster.
Tools Requirement For Quality Assurance Testing
Each QA team requires the right tools in order to ensure they are thoroughly testing software and not missing any bugs that users may find in production.
Let us start by testing on real devices. No matter what type of test is being performed, QA teams need access to real devices that they can test on. It is impossible to release an app or website to the public without testing it under real user conditions.
Real device testing, whether it is manual or automated testing, is not negotiable.
A cloud-based solution is a great alternative to an in-house lab that lacks the latest equipment. The tool must be able to support teams of all sizes without compromising speed or accuracy.
Developers. dev's Live for Large Teams lets the QA team add as many members as they need to a plan. Teams can add unlimited members in order to expand their planks.
Each tester can simultaneously test on 2000+ browsers and devices, including the most recent versions of top browsers.
- There are no interruptions or waiting times.
- Easy team management, with built-in facilities to create subteams, assign licenses, and enforce access control across all teams.
A few other tools can help you run QA processes smoothly:
- Google Docs: This can be used to store test data, checklists and test plans. It can also be shared among teams.
- Jira: This is useful for bug tracking, assigning tasks to individuals, and raising tickets for tasks.
- Zeplin: This template is useful for designers to share and receive design documentation.
- Selenium: It is ideal for automated testing websites.
- Cypress: It is ideal for automated testing websites.
- Appium: It is ideal for automated testing apps.
It can be difficult to set up a QA department, especially for a new company. It is unnecessary to do this without a structure in place.
This article will provide clarity to help QA managers quickly set up their teams. They can also set up their teams to maximize efficiency, speedy project completion, and visible success.
Developers. dev: How Can We Help?
Developers. dev Test and Automation consultants increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Quality Assurance process.
Developers.dev has the experience and expertise to help customers choose the best test strategy. Contact us Developers.dev to know more about enterprise mobile security solutions, and discuss how we can help you with your requirements.
Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!
Conclusion
As many tools are available for this type of testing, companies recommend that QA professionals choose the one that is most familiar to them with business objectives.
You need to realize that there are many ways to secure an app. Security is a continuous process. The more people involved in enterprise mobility security tests, then the better.
