The Coronavirus Pandemic has brought with it new challenges that compel the business world to adapt to the new normal of working from home. Cybersecurity has proven a new concern for most businesses as they opt for digital transformation. Neglecting the risks concerning cybersecurity will further the implications on legal, operational, and reputational compliance.
The pandemic has had an impact on the flow and retention of web traffic, which gets reflected in web analytics in the form of Exit Percentage and Bounce Rate. This article gives you an insight into the risks and mitigation measures on cyber security owing to the impact of Covid19.
Impact of the Pandemic on Cybersecurity and Digital Workspace
Technological changes have become imminent now that we are heading towards normalcy and not adhering to the prior restrictions. Providing a remote working environment for employees proves a far-stretched challenge for most organizations, especially when they have to make it ‘cyber-safe’.
Technology plays a crucial role when you ought to conduct business virtually. Addressing security issues is of prime importance for employers as the recruits do not enjoy any inherent layer of protection.
Cybersecurity calls for enhanced focus owing to the need for remote working at various organizational levels. It raises your organization’s cyber vulnerability. Crashing and hacking of websites are common when your site is not sound. Over 45% of internet users experience phishing scams. It is even evident among those that work from home.
The fact that most of us stay focused on the news concerning Covid19 updates yields more opportunities for hackers to exploit our vulnerabilities. Most of them tend to capitalize on the fake news that spread like wildfire. This makes it even more important for us to compute the costs of remote working and see if that proves more feasible to offset the scope of losses arising from it.
How Security Testers Are Bracing for Challenges Post Covid-19
Shadow IT and remote deployments have made it mandatory for security testers to check out newer ways of handling testing propagators. Most companies are now struggling to bring back employees within the purview of a physical workspace.
Businesses across industries had to lay the foundation of their global workforce once the authorities began issuing orders for shelters firmly held on the ground. Fresh cyber security challenges surfaced owing to the sudden rush to develop and implement this technological shift. The security teams experienced its powerful impact while testing things within the known environments.
A new set of challenges awaited the security teams as their members began returning to work following the lifting of workplace restrictions. Although it established a new work order, most returning workforces brought up a potential threat caused by devices that were either misconfigured or infected.
Many had even developed the habit of venturing into platforms based on the cloud. However, their management disapproved of such platforms without consideration. The teams now have the responsibility of following a new roadmap altogether.
The Threat Landscape Ushers In an Era of Remote Working
For quite some time, the security teams were clinging to remote modules following a slower but steadier shift of working patterns even before the onset of Covid19. However, the pandemic had been the primary driving factor behind its dramatic acceleration.
While just a select few were allowed to work from home earlier, most production and delivery teams now have the liberty to do it. Now that these teams handle crucial customer data and files reflecting important managerial decisions from home, the platforms need security with end-to-end encryption.
Companies that were unprepared to deal with the needs of following remote working had to pull the gear in quick response. Most of them also faced the urgent need to approve video conferencing tools unapproved by their operations earlier.
Then again, they even had to give access to various high-end systems to the remote teams as it seemed necessary. Dispatching new laptops quickly to these newly formed teams was the need of the hours, but it was far from being secure at times.
Most organizations have failed to avoid such vulnerabilities and threats caused by the rapid procuring and shipping of laptops to and fro. Conforming to the baseline security norms seemed complicated for many organizations. Some struggle to undertake fair measures e.g. incorporating advanced security patches and adapting VPN connections. It will help curb the exponential scope of security flaws at large.
Challenges We Need to Address As Performance and Security Testers
Testing has undergone a leftward shift from the Centre of Excellence following the emergence of agile deliveries from the usual waterfall development. The introduction of test automation was a natural outcome of our need to enhance coverage and efficiency.
Open-source testing projects also flourished once we felt the necessity of democratizing things. Adapting to new and improved testing practices has become a norm as we move from legacy systems to the latest cloud-based micro-services.
An increase in leadership priorities set on digital infrastructure, digitization of interaction between supply chains and the end-user, and privacy norms thwarting hacking attempts are driving the adoption of testing methods.
Let’s take the example of e-commerce websites and payment gateways that faced the challenges head-on. The sites started witnessing a large influx of visitors from around the globe through the long periods of lockdown caused by the pandemic. It has resulted in a much higher volume of online transactions across global digital platforms.
Unlike before, the websites set up by e-Commerce platforms, NBFCs, and banking institutions are now experiencing extensive challenges concerning security and privacy issues. Besides, they also need to address a few crucial issues arising from their inability to anticipate such unprecedented load caused by online traffic.
Software support and testing staffs now experience harrowing moments while coping with downtimes and security lapses. The pandemic has reconditioned how we used to think and interact. It is good to see things in a new light as the companies leave no leaf unturned for checking and improving the testing modules besides enacting procedural changes.
How Software Testing Is Moving In a New Direction Altogether
The purpose of the leftward shift is to incorporate more types of testing for the teams. In our attempt to hunt down potential threats, every codebase alteration now makes it necessary to run security and performance tests in the sprint.
Setting up a fresh set of validations from the non-functional point of view is inevitable now that we take the testing initiative within the CI/CD pipeline. Alternatively, we can run it ahead of its submission to production.
It is the end milestone of a project that determines the extent to which performing security and performance tests is possible. The challenge lies in identifying the non-functional problems posing threats to the project.
We can do it more confidently simply by shifting the direction of security and performance testing early on. It paves the way toward delivering high-quality software for executing performance and security tests.