The Importance of Cloud Security Testing

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The Importance of Cloud Security Testing

Safe Milli
| September 21, 2021 Last Updated 2021-09-22T08:47:21Z
Global digital transformation is forcing companies to increasingly use new technologies to ensure business success. It is no longer enough to simply bring a product to market. It needs to be continuously improved and adapted to the rapidly changing requirements of end-users. Regardless of the industry, virtually every organization has evolved into an IT company.

In the information age, data plays an important role. Businesses are trying to ensure a high level of confidentiality and security, and with the advent of cloud services - reliable migration of information to the cloud.

By 2020, almost every organization in the world has begun to apply these technologies to one degree or another. As the Deloitte report shows, more than 90% of respondents store their databases on cloud platforms, and more than half keep all their work capacity and important applications in the cloud.

In this article, we'll talk about the cloud migrations that most organizations face and the importance of cloud security testing.

Why is it worth it to transfer data to the cloud?


Using cloud technologies, companies not only optimize processes but also gain additional competitive advantages.

  • Availability: Employees no longer depend on the office, because cloud storage allows you to work anytime, anywhere.
  • Scalability: Companies can increase or decrease the volume of services depending on their needs and business goals.
  • Security: In case of unforeseen circumstances, all the necessary information can be restored thanks to the backup.
  • Timely adaptation: Software and hardware can be quickly reconfigured to new information systems and business services.
  • Economic efficiency: The costs are only for the services used. There is no longer any need to purchase special hardware and applications to maintain a data center or hire specialists for technical support. Therefore, moving information to the cloud ensures a reasonable budget allocation.

Testing as a guarantee of a qualitative cloud transition


Collecting customer and employee data for decades, the numbers can be unprecedented by the time they migrate to the cloud. Rigorous testing is required to ensure the quality of the transition and to ensure the safety of confidential information.

The choice of a testing service depends on the business needs and characteristics of the project.

Functional checks

QA engineers check the functionality against the established requirements, whether it is easy to integrate into the corporate environment and whether it meets the expectations of users. Also, experts test the correctness of the API, find a certain type of data in the initial database, check the relationships and view all the information in the cloud for compliance with the data from the previous storage.

Test automation


QA specialists regularly scan internal and external vulnerabilities and assess the compliance of the developed product with established standards, optimizing processes and minimizing the human factor.

Security testing

An IDC survey shows that nearly two-thirds of organizations consider security as the most difficult process in adopting the cloud. Hacker attacks prevail, which can be resisted with reliable and high-quality software, for which the provider is responsible.

Situations are common where users accidentally disclose their credentials, placing all responsibility on the company. Two-factor authentication with several stages of logging into the system will help to avoid such risks (for example, you first need to enter a username and password, and then a special SMS code).

Another layer of cloud protection is data transfer security. Reliable cloud providers use encryption of traffic using HTTPS protocol and SSL certificate. However, you should not overestimate the supplier's capabilities, because everyone is prone to errors, and you should think about conducting penetration tests.

Performance testing


Denial of service (DoS) attacks are common, where a large number of concurrent requests overload the server and clients cannot use the cloud service. Distributed or DDoS attacks are more common and are carried out from multiple points.

This is why it is extremely important to test the resilience of the virtual environment to high loads and the responsiveness to network problems. Thus, testers identify weaknesses and ensure the stable operation of the cloud solution.

Conclusion


With the advent of the information age, the desire to store data in the cloud has become a necessity rather than a desire. Cloud computing can bring a range of benefits to companies, including affordability, cost-effectiveness, and scalability. However, the transition to the cloud is quite time consuming: it requires an investment of both time and money.

A reliable and clear data transfer plan, comprehensive cloud security testing and a high level of security will allow you to be confident in the confidentiality of information.
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