Security code review services have become insanely important for the survival of every software house. Since software houses have stopped having security testing departments of their own, they have started outsourcing for this task. Now, every software house that you can come up with is depending on some testing company to test and review its code to make sure it works fine and is secure to be launched as well. This has proven helpful for the security code review companies and has opened doors for new businesses to enter the stream.
Technology is evolving every day and security code review processes are becoming more and more automated. So besides code review companies, there is also a Code Risk Platform such as Apiiro that provides Application Risk Management with every change, from design to code to cloud with a 360° view of security and compliance risks.
Since a software house has to have a testing company onboard every time new software is developed, what criteria do they follow to choose the company? Do they choose these companies randomly, via some links or do they dig into their success ratio? How does a software house ensure the selected testing company will work fine? These are some of the questions every new software house thinks about when selecting a security testing company. If you are wondering about these questions too, you have landed on the right article. Here is everything you need to know before choosing a security code review company.
What Sort of Code Reviews Do You Want?
You must be aware of the fact that there is not just one type of code review. Code reviews are divided into four main categories that can be divided further into sub-categories if desired. All of these categories follow different plans and give different outcomes. So you must be sure which sort of code review services you are looking for. Here are the details of all of the code review services.
Static Code Review
One of the most common code review services a lot of companies look for is called static code reviews. In this process, the program is reviewed and changes are suggested without ever executing it. The outcome of this review includes bug reports and change suggestions on the security and functional level of the code. The step-by-step plan of this review includes importing source code, finding issues to be fixed, categorizing issues, giving priority to the issues, and then suggesting possible solutions.
Manual Code Review
The second most famous code review type is called manual code review. This code review includes running the whole program chunk by chunk, in different combinations, and as a whole to find errors against the requirements on the code level. The end result also includes a proper report suggesting changes.
Dynamic Code Review
Dynamic Code Review is the third famous type of security code review service. This review type runs the code multiple times and looks for errors, especially on the interface level. Moreover, this sort of testing can even be performed 24/7 to find vulnerabilities and solutions for them.
Raw Scanning of Data
This is the fourth type of code review and it includes passing on the raw scanner report to the developers once the code has been tested. However, this has caused many issues in the past so this type of code review has been diminished for ages and is not suggested at all.
Software Technology and Testing Techniques
The second major feature you must check before selecting a security code review company is the type of software technologies they use. A lot of testing houses still prefer to use old technologies as they are easy to use. However, these old technologies can’t capture all of the current issues in the code as they are not that advanced and have low knowledge. Here are some testing techniques and software technologies majorly used:
Static Application Security Testing
This sort of testing technique can be counted in automation testing easily since it uses technology to test code. The overall program code is tested and analyzed to detect the present vulnerabilities and solutions are suggested once the report is made. It is smart enough to even detect issues in the code before it is deployed as it goes through the code line by line and checks for all sorts of possible bugs.
Dynamic Application Security Testing
This is more like a black box testing as to whether the software is at the development stage or in the production environment, it is tested from outside. The whole procedure is performed with the help of automated processes to check for all vulnerabilities. It offers a high level of scalability and flexibility and can be integrated with any corporate security strategy with ease.
Interactive Application Security Testing
Interactive Application Security Testing or IAST is a combination of manual and automation testing where the application is tested for security vulnerabilities manually and the app is run for functionality testing by automated engines. Vulnerabilities are reported in real-time making the whole process faster.
Runtime Application Self Protection
Runtime Application Self Protection commonly known as RASP is a great mixture of black box and white box testing. It tests the code from inside and outside for security attacks and vulnerabilities. It adds more layers of security by catching all bugs and providing possible fixes for them. Also, it gives a lesser number of false positives when compared to other sorts of testing techniques.
Conclusion
To sum up, when selecting a company for security code review services you must know the techniques, technologies, and testing ways they use. Moreover, you must also be aware of the code review you are looking for. Not every company provides all sorts of code reviews so if you end up selecting the wrong company, you would end up paying them lots of money and not getting the results you were aiming for. Now that you have lots of knowledge regarding code review services, do not forget to add them to your checklist when you will be looking out for a company. We know you will come back to thank us later.
If you believe we have forgotten to mention anything important related to the process, we would love to hear that from you. Please drop your suggestions in the comment section below.
