Agile Penetration Testing Services

Agile penetration testing is a series of regular assessments which allows companies to accelerate the development of secure software. It provides a structured way to find and address potential risks in an application in alignment with the existing timelines and schedules of product releases, ensuring that newly added or updated features are tested in real time, as they are added or updated. Agile pen testing is flexible and usually has a smaller scope than traditional pen testing. This is because it is focused on a specific part of an asset or a particular vulnerability across an asset.

Agile penetration testing starts at a similar point to traditional application testing which is a comprehensive assessment of the application. However, unlike a traditional test, that assessment forms a baseline rather than stopping there until the next top-to-bottom test. As each new feature is developed, the new features and altered code are penetration tested as part of the process and can be remediated before each new version goes live. With vulnerabilities identified and remediated as part of each sprint, your software is delivered more quickly to customers while its security is more assured.

The specific time frames and schedule for agile penetration testing will be defined by the way in which your business structures its software development, as well as your development methodology risk profile and security priorities. An agile pen testing service starts with a traditional penetration test of the entire product, to build a strong security baseline. Once the baseline is established, timelines are set for when to test during each sprint with the tests tailored to the security needs for each update.

Agile penetration testing services align with the software development lifecycle, leading to a better overall product development process. With more frequent testing and remediation, developers become more aware of secure development practices and are better prepared to incorporate them into their work. Agile pen testing also helps organisations to more frequently and effectively address issues such as data that might be exposed by the new functions or guidelines or regulations that are now relevant due to the changes. It also boosts client trust by providing proof that every version of your software has been thoroughly assessed.

Agile penetration testing helps organisations to better manage budgets and reduce the costs of development. This is because, by identifying and remediating critical issues with software in real time, the potential costs of a bug being released to clients is removed. Longer-term, agile pen testing helps to enhance public perception of your products by significantly reducing the potential for security breaches and the need for urgent critical updates.

Working with an experienced and trusted agile pen testing partner can help get you started on the process more quickly and more cost-effectively than recruiting your own team. When choosing a partner, make sure to ask the right questions about how they deliver agile penetration testing. Ask the prospective provider about aspects such as the size of their team and the areas of product security their team is skilled in, project management and communication protocols, resource turnaround time, and how they define their security prioritisation during sprints.