What is Website Security Audit and how to do it?

A Security Audit refers to the systematic evaluation of the security of an organization’s information system. While performing a security assessment, how well the IT system confirms to a set of established criteria is also checked. Note that a thorough and in-depth audit usually analyses the security related to the physical configuration of the system. It also examines the software information handling processes and user practices. It is worth mentioning here that reliable security audit services can analyze your whole IT infrastructure along with its loopholes and vulnerabilities. Security audits can be broken down into two processes – Penetration testing and Vulnerability assessments. Let’s take a glance at the significance of security audits and its varied types.

What is the primary purpose of a security audit?

A security audit is referred to as a high-level description of the variety of ways through which an organization can analyze their overall security posture. This also includes safe trading in the cybersecurity sphere. This also involves thorough scrutiny of the operating systems, applications, etc. Security audits are focused on vulnerability scans and penetration testing to discover potential flaws that can be exploited by attackers.         

How do you perform a security audit?

To be frank, there exist innumerable ways that can help you perform a security audit.  However, while performing a security audit, the workflow of the audit should be determined. For instance, you have to define the assessment criteria clearly. While preparing the security audit, you have to select the tools and methodologies to meet the goals. While carrying on with the security audit process, you have to monitor the important data points for precision. So let’s take a look at the various ways with the help of which you can perform security audits.

1. Vulnerability scanners

To be precise, these tools are one of the most basic ways to discover your system’s vulnerabilities and loopholes. There are a plethora of online vulnerability scanners available nowadays. For instance, Astra’s Website Scanner is one of the most favoured vulnerability scanners out there.

2. Manual Security Audits

You can perform a security audit manually by using your intelligence and analytical mind to weigh the seriousness of a particular threat. Interestingly, manual audits also require the help of automated tools to perform an audit successfully. However, manual audits are strictly prohibited to be performed by novices as there are certain security breaches that can easily pass their eye.

3. Automated security audits

Automated security audits are the latest way of analyzing the vulnerability of your IT systems. Automated tools for security auditing are fast and take off a lot of stress from you. Moreover, a majority of them are available for free which is a great thing. However, there are certain downsides to automated security audits too. Automated auditing tools are quite limited in their reach. They may not uncover all types of security vulnerabilities that are present in your systems and IT infrastructure. In other words, it creates a false illusion that you are safe, when in fact, you are not.

4. Security audit services from professionals

As a business owner, it is not always possible for you to carry out your organization’s security audits. Moreover, if you have branches in various parts of the world, it is seemingly impossible for you to execute a security audit all by yourself. This is where the professional security audit services come to the fore. They follow a nuanced procedure of security scrutiny which ensures that none of the security breaches and vulnerabilities is missed. Professional security audit services also provide you with comprehensive reports highlighting the stronger and weaker areas of your IT infrastructure.    

Security audit services

Here is the list of top security audit services popular among organizations.

Astra Security

Astra provides you with a wide range of benefits which you would find nowhere. The VAPT services provided by Astra come in various plans which depict practicality to the business owners. Astra provides a collaborative and intuitive dashboard with the help of which you can keep a real-time track on the proceedings. Post the audit, Astra security experts also go the extra way to assist your developers in fixing those vulnerabilities. Astra also performs a prompt rescan to make sure that there are no underlying security breaches.  

Acunetix

Quite impressively, Acunetix can recognize more than 7000 vulnerabilities in custom and open source apps. Its AcuSensor feature allows you to explore and test the hidden inputs which are not found during normal auditing. On the other hand, it comes with advanced authentication and crawling support which ensures you with the option to assess security breaches in JavaScript websites. With Acunetix, you can also track fixed issues to determine whether or not they are reappearing.

Netsparker

Netsparker is a fully scalable and integrated web application with built-in functionalities which makes the process of security audits easier. It is primarily associated with fortifying your web security processes. Interestingly, you can perform an automatic vulnerability assessment which would help you to prioritize your work on fixing several issues. It can automatically crawl and scan a wide range of modern web apps and sites.

And lastly…

Note that you may employ more than one type of security audit to get your desired outcomes and meet your business objectives. The primary purpose of a security audit is to assess the IT infrastructure of the company. It is worthwhile to mention here that an IT security audit also comprises the physical part. In other words, the auditor verifies the physical hardware and other administrative issues. With soaring cases of data breaches, it is high time you audited your IT infrastructure for vulnerabilities.