A Guide to Security Testing

Security is more important than ever, especially with so many online resources and applications. When developing an application, gathering information on security is a top priority for us at ISU Corp.

Our security audit is an analytical approach to measure the informative security assessment for your application. We will perform vulnerability scans, and carefully examine the system configuration and settings, and analyze the network and communication.

When analyzing your application, we take into account what's already been completed with the IT environment when we do an information security audit.

It’s challenging for businesses to stay ahead of the ever-evolving security threats. As a safeguard, it’s important to be prepared and have a Disaster Recovery Runbook in the event a breach occurs. Security hacks are stressful for everyone involved, but a DR runbook can help any IT team stay calm and organized.

Our goal is to understand your application’s information system deficiencies. To do this we will start off by verifying the security level of your Servers, Operating Systems & Databases, Business Applications, Software, and Network & Communications.

We will track any and all of the deficiencies that are found, and then we will come up with recommendations to improve the deficiencies.

By utilizing our testing services, you have the ability to move forward confidently knowing that your applications:

• Are protected from both known and unknown vulnerabilities

• The data for them is safe and difficult to hack

• Are in compliance with security regulations

Now, here is the security testing process:

At ISU Corp, our professional Web Application Security Testing Service is used to assist you in recognizing the vulnerabilities. The application testing is completed offsite for external faced web applications, but we will apply identical security properties for all applications that we develop.

Our security testing methodologies were discovered by the Open Web Application Security Project and they include the following processes:

• Information retrieval

• Arranged management testing

• Business logic testing

• Authentication and authorization testing

• Session management testing

• Data validation

• Denial of service testing

• Web services testing

• Ajax testing

Regardless of how diligent the testing processes are, new threats and attack vectors will always find a way into your software. Here at ISU Corp, we use our best efforts to put energy and resources into gathering the most recent knowledge for designing effective methods to optimize our security testing services.

We will test for:

• Injection

• Cross-site scripting (XSS)

• Broken authentication and session management

• Insecure direct object references

• Cross-Site request forgery (CSRF)

• Security misconfiguration

• Insecure cryptographic storage

• Failure to Restrict URL Access

• Insufficient transport layer protection

• Unvalidated redirects and forwards

At ISU Corp, we will also provide access to in-depth vulnerability assessments that closely examine every open port, host, and services that have access to the Web. The vulnerability tests will also map the network architecture to check that the network devices are protected from hacker attacks.

Reliant on what’s discovered in the process of the vulnerability test, we will determine and report your network’s security position.

Our diligent research teams at ISU Corp strive to validate the security of your websites prior to potential issues. Our goal is to be your trusted partner for all your web application testing and assessment requirements.

Reach out to one of our experts at ISU Corp to get started, or if you have any additional inquiries about security testing!

5 Best Features of Microsoft’s Advanced Threat Protection Software

Security is one, if not the top most important priority a business should have. Without it, imminent threats would constantly be another burden the business would have to deal with. Microsoft offers various security platforms, one of those being Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection. Read on to learn how to protect your company from cybersecurity threats. 

Breaking it Down   

This Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is a cloud-based email server, which prevents viruses, spoofing, and malware to occur to your organization. It’s one of the features included in Microsoft’s enterprise E5 and business premium offers. The basic starting price is $2.60 per user- a low cost, for high protection! 

Besides the cost-effective advantages, here are the following features to sell you on it even further: 

Top 5 Features of ATP: 

1. Attachments 

This ensures any attachments coming through to your business emails are safe and not malicious or virus-prone. This means, whenever someone in your organization receives an email with an attachment, this safety feature will automatically test the attachment to ensure it doesn’t affect your business. 

If everything is normal, the attachment will open and if not, it will be deleted. 

2. Links 

Nowadays, hacks and general cyber-attacks often occur through links. This is obviously especially prominent from those links you get from strange third-party sources. It is evident to most to not click on these links, but mistakes do happen. 

But that’s why ATP provides a safe link feature. If the link from the email does get clicked on, then this feature simultaneously checks it before allowing you to open it. If it is unsafe, it will be deemed as such and blocked. Otherwise, if it is safe, it will open as normal. 

3. Spoofing 

Spoofing, although often associated with a negative connotation, is also necessary at times. For example: an assistant speaking on your behalf, lead generation, sales emails, and more. Of course, you can’t do it all yourself so others within your organization, or those who you’ve hired need to ‘spoof’ on your behalf. 

For this exact reason, it is crucial to not limit all types of spoofing. The concern should be that it is legitimate, authorized spoofing that occurs instead of those malicious spoof emails. This is why ATP offers a spoof intelligence feature that ensures your organization is protected against that issue.

Your business is then able to configure certain spoof filters to detect differences from real and fake spoof email activity. 

4. Anti-Phishing 

Thanks to machine learning and various impersonation algorithms, ATP is able to provide an anti-phishing feature to protect your company from phishing occurrences. This feature allows for verification of any and all incoming emails in order to detect any suspicious activity.

After your security team has integrated the ATP, this feature will be automatically applied. Based on the way your team has implemented this, the anti-phishing feature will check certain actions and restrict any phishing queries. 

5. Sharepoint, Microsoft Teams, and OneDrive 

The three platforms listed above are the most used within business settings in order to increase collaboration and share ideas easily and efficiently. However, just because it is Microsoft-based, security features still need to be implemented to ensure a safe and secure environment. 

ATP is able to block any malicious activity attempting to immerse itself into your team site or platform. Once surely identified as malicious, the file for example, will be locked and restricted from anyone being able to open it. Thus, even if not deleted, it will not pose any threat. 

Each file within Sharepoint, Microsoft Teams, and OneDrive is scanned by ATP in order to pick out any suspicious documents that may be lurking about. 

Time to Secure Your Business?

Real-time protection is more important than ever in today’s new technologically advanced world. If you don’t have a security team, or are looking for help in integrating a security platform into your organization, get in touch with us today!

Secure your business and don’t worry about the constant external cybersecurity threats that exist. 

Security Breaches: How They Happen and How You Can Stop Them

One of your highest priorities for your business, regardless of the sector you’re in, should be security. The last thing you want is for your brand reputation to go down the drain due to a breach in security.

Not only will your client’s and potential client’s lose their trust in you, you will also suffer financial losses. This loss is not only the cost to repair the breach, but also loss of business overall. So, if your company operates in the B2B or B2C industries, pay close attention to your security systems and everything you would be held accountable for. 

Like most businesses, your company uses various software apps to conduct your day-to-day operations. To name a few: email, browsers, data analytics, and customer relationship management; which would inevitably cease to exist with a security breach.  

Are you certain that your security is top notch? Don’t let your business be vulnerable and susceptible to today’s breaches. 

Secure Your Information

Most people picture hackers who are specifically targeting their business and attacking each weak point they may have. Although this may be true (and certainly is in some cases), half of the security breaches that occur are due to software or human errors.

Companies like Facebook and Microsoft offer support through their bug bounty programs, which are essentially white hat hackers who find a corporation’s vulnerabilities and resolve the issue. These hackers are paid millions of dollars, enticing an exploitation system around software vulnerabilities.  

Common Vulnerabilities 

The Cloud:

• Using services like Microsoft Azure gives you more security for your information and a great infrastructure to protect your business. 

• However, make sure your cloud-based apps are set up by a professional in the right manner, because any little mistake is an easy-in for hackers.

On-Site: 

• Many businesses make the mistake of believing that having your data be kept internally will be the safest method. 

• Although this can work sometimes, you need to have the expertise and knowledge to sustain any challenges and build the proper firewalls, otherwise, your information is easily compromised. 

Standard Software:

• These consist of platforms like Microsoft SharePoint or Office 365, which is why many companies believe it’s a simple process to attain for their own information. This is not true! 

• This software must be configured properly, although it does not seem complex, simple mistakes can happen.

Custom Apps:

• Even when using standard software apps like the ones mentioned above, your business will most likely need to adjust a few things to align with your processes. 

• Customizations as such can cause holes and thus security breaches if not conducted by a professional developer. 

Procedures: 

• Even with technological advancements like AI, a lot of processes still have to be done by a human. Which is why, half of security breaches that happen are caused by human error. 

• This is why it is integral for your company to have clear and strict policies in place to avoid the risk of this happening.

Internet of Things (IoT):

• The concept of IoT is one that is both good and bad. It is most definitely an extension, a helping hand if you will. However, it is also a threat towards security, as it can be hacked just as any other technology. 

• If you’re incorporating IoT into your business, which most do as this can range from wifi routers to security cameras, be sure you have the proper security functions in place. 

Be Proactive Not Reactive! 

At the end of the day, no one wants their information to be compromised. Even if you think you have nothing worth hacking, there is always useful information: private client details, accounts, etc.

You need to be sure your company has the greatest security protection to prevent any type of breach. To do so, you need professionals for the installation and consultation process. 

ISU Corp is experienced and well-trusted as a software development partner. We can offer our expert advice on the best way to be proactive, so that when something does happen, you’re ready. 

Reach out today and be prepared for tomorrow!