AI pen-test analysis regarding data security

Gone are the days when AI was considered to be a gimmick! It now stands as a legitimate and incredibly useful technology, which has slowly made inroads into hundreds of industries. Be it healthcare, finance, marketing, manufacturing processes, software development and testing or any other customer-centric service, AI has made a difference.

In the world of IT security solutions, penetration testing is one of the major areas where AI has played a key role. To be more precise, BAS (Breach and Attack Simulation) tools are used when it comes to AI-backed penetration testing. Such technologies help you run the tests whenever you want and moreover, the automated tests give you the desired results in quick time.

Furthermore, AI helps in making decisions more swiftly. In this article, we help you get a better understanding of how AI pen-testing can improve the security of your software or application.

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing is a set of test cases that are created and performed to simulate cyber-attacks on a system to check for any vulnerabilities and loopholes. It is carried out with the objective of finding any weaknesses in the software or application, that can lead to a loss of data or crashing of the software in all. For this, you need to hire professional penetration testers who are capable of creating security-threat simulations in accordance with the features of your software.

What are the problems in the traditional Penetration Testing?

To understand the problems, you first need to have a basic idea about how traditional penetration testing works. To start with, the software is run under different simulations to identify the vulnerable spots and then they are rectified with the help of developers and coders in the team. Once this process is completed and necessary changes are made in the codes, the penetration test cycle is repeated to find the remaining bugs.

The major problems in this process are that it is time-consuming and repetitive, which proves to be expensive. As a result, these tests are conducted only 2-3 times in a year in most cases.

This is where AI-backed BAS tools come into play and make the process faster and more accurate. Since you can buy these tools, the in-house teams can use them whenever they want, thus giving you the power to perform penetration tests whenever you want.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that you still have to track down the vulnerabilities and fix them. This is again is a tedious job that requires a lot of manpower. Here too, AI comes to the rescue and minimises the burden on the management and analysis team. Let us tell you how.

How has AI-backed Pen-testing improved data security?

The simplest and most effective way in which AI improves the efficiency of the pen-testing is by giving additional information about how to tackle the vulnerability in a better way. AI basically helps in figuring out potential effects of the threat in the whole system, based on the features of the application. It collects information based on the behaviour of the features of the infrastructure of the software and then helps you determine the points that need to be addressed on an urgent basis. In such an approach that revolves around behaviour-driven data analysis, you not only save time in terms of reacting to a situation but also do it in an accurate manner as well.

Furthermore, AI can also be used to design the steps of the remediation process on its own, helping you implement the code-alteration process immediately. This frees up the security administrators from a major tedious task, helping them utilise the time to create more security firewalls for the system in order to secure the data.

In short, AI helps in eliminating the practice of performing repetitive tests manually, thanks to the automation BAS tools and automation test cases put to use. Once you have successfully integrated the AI into the penetration test cases, you just need to fine-tune the AI system to come up with more accurate and reliable pieces of information that let you take the right decisions quickly.

Even though AI does a wonderful job of automating the system in certain areas and gives useful nuggets of information, one needs to remember that it is the penetration testers who have the final say in the remediation process. Therefore, you need an efficient team of penetration testers who are well-versed with the BAS tools and AI, in particular.

This is where a software testing company like TestUnity can help you create the best security system for your application. Thanks to the use the latest innovations and the years of expertise in the field, you can be rest assured to get the best services here. Get in touch with us to know more.

TestUnity

Testunity is a SaaS-based technology platform driven by a vast community of testers & QAs spread around the world, powered by technology & testing experts to create the dedicated testing hub. Which is capable of providing almost all kind of testing services for almost all the platforms exists in software word.