5 Signs Your Current Security Testing Is Inadequate
Recently we have seen the news titled “history’s biggest data leak” where 16 billion passwords of Apple, Facebook, Google, and various government portals leaked. We see this news heading in regular intervals. A new security parameter in place and a new way to breach the security – which is a never-ending loop. As per IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2024 report, IT failure and human error cause 25% of all cyber-attacks.
The problem with the organizations who become prey to tragic cyber attack is not because they don’t have security in place, but they do regular security testing thinking this will ensure protection. The underlying issue is that the passed “security testing” might be outdated or insufficient.
If your current security testing shows the following warning signs, you might be at the edge of a security breach. Here read the top 5 signs your current security testing is inadequate.
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1. You do Your Security Testing Once in a Year
If you are conducting security testing once in a year, you are taking the security snapshot one day and think that it would be sufficient for next 365 days.
What changes in 1 year?
- Deployment of new applications
- Software updates
- Employee transitions
- Business processes change
- Cloud service adoption
- Updated compliance requirements
and more… these changes may attract new vulnerabilities or alter the risk factor.
Cybercriminals do not operate annually; they are in consistent search of new vulnerabilities. This year, the United States National Vulnerability Database added 23000+ vulnerabilities till June 2025. Social engineering and ransomware groups are continuously evolving.
A quarterly comprehensive security testing, monthly vulnerability testing and a change-based security testing would be effective.
2. You Receive Template-Based Reports
If you are receiving a standard security report that fits for any organization, you need to worry. As the template-based reports might be generated using automated scans (mostly outdated) with list of vulnerabilities listed with no alignment to your business.
These reports generally contain
- Long lists of CVE numbers without business context
- Technical jargon that doesn’t translate to operational risk
- Standard remediation steps that may not apply to your environment
- No prioritization based on your actual business operations
- Missing industry-specific compliance considerations
- Identical formatting and language across different clients
Taking an example of “SQL Injection vulnerabilities found” in the report may not provide the information that this vulnerability can access the customer database and the hacker can access entire customer details. The report must detail the risks associated with also the report must be sorted priority wise so that the organization can act accordingly.
3. Security Testing without IT Team’s involvement
This shows the testers have no knowledge of internal systems and done the testing based on assumptions and observable elements. This approach won’t have organizational context which will lead to misunderstanding of security controls and further lead to irrelevant vulnerability reporting.
Pretesting survey or assessment can understand the infrastructure. Knowing business process in a must for the security assessment. Collaborative testing will be more efficient, as the real time communication during the assessment will give more clarity.
4. Lack of Social Engineering, Human Factor Check
As quoted initially, human error cannot be ignored. Always remember, the security controls are as strong as the people use them. You may have military level security but if an employee clicks on a malicious link or compromised credentials on a phishing page the security in place becomes irrelevant. Most of the assessors skip this vulnerability area.
Effective security testing must include human vulnerability testing through simulation, social engineering test and physical security assessment. Awareness sessions should be conducted.
5. No Validation Testing Post Remediation
After implementation of recommended protection, it is important to perform verification testing. Fix and forget approach will be same as not conducting the security testing. The patches may not be installed correctly; configuration changes may have timed out and did not take effect.
Without verification testing, the assessment activity will be incomplete. It is important as at the remediation steps there are chances of finding new vulnerabilities.
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Final Note
Security testing is more than a checkbox; it’s an ongoing activity that needs to adapt to your business needs and the changing threat landscape. Above, we have explained 5 signs your current security testing is inadequate. If the approach you’re following now shows any of the signs mentioned above, then you need to reconsider your testing strategy before attackers do it for you. At Cybersics, we take companies out of being reactive and make them resilient by providing real-world, risk-aware and continuous security testing that fits your business.