“Application testing services” is a comprehensive term for the verification and validation services that support quality control and quality assurance (QA) of clients’ applications. Verification assesses whether a product/application or service complies with regulations, requirements, specifications or enforced constraints. Validation typically involves engagement with external customers to confirm suitability and acceptance. Infrastructure testing services, mobile device testing and software testing tools created for the market by independent software vendors (ISVs) are not included in this definition.
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) Tools enable organizations to gain a deeper understanding of security posture vulnerabilities by automating testing of threat vectors such as external and insider, lateral movement, and data exfiltration. BAS complements red teaming and penetration testing but cannot completely replace them. BAS validates an organization's security posture by testing its ability to detect a portfolio of simulated attacks performed by SaaS platforms, software agents, and virtual machines. They generate detailed reports about security gaps and prioritize remediation efforts based on the risk level. The typical users of these technologies are financial institutions, insurance companies, and more.
External Attack Surface Management (EASM) refers to the processes, technology and managed services deployed to discover internet-facing enterprise assets and systems and associated exposures which include misconfigured public cloud services and servers, exposed enterprise data such as credentials and third-party partner software code vulnerabilities that could be exploited by adversaries. EASM provides valuable risk prioritization and context and actionable information through regular or continuously monitoring and discovery for external-facing assets and systems. External attack surface management is a top priority for security teams and security risk managers.
Penetration Testing tools and services are designed to test vulnerabilities and weaknesses within computer systems and applications by simulating a cyber attack on a computer system, network, or web application. Companies conduct penetration tests to uncover new defects and test the security of communication channels and integrations. These tools and services either use vulnerability scanners or conduct manual/automated tests that scan networks and systems for open ports, and services and conduct vulnerability assessments to find any software lapse that may prove a route of attack on the system later. Further, the identified vulnerabilities are exploited to gain unauthorized access to systems or data and they try to escalate or pivot to key assets to have a better understanding about the impact of a specific attack. The process ends with generating a detailed and comprehensive testing report that describes, gives evidence for, assesses the risk, and recommends the solution to any vulnerability found. Typically, these are used by security professionals and ethical hackers to identify vulnerabilities, evaluate risks or/and validate controls, understanding how the cyber-attacks work, and test the effectiveness of security measures.
The security threat intelligence products and services market refers to the combination of products and services that deliver knowledge (context, mechanisms, indicators, implications and action-oriented advice), information and data about cybersecurity threats, threat actors and other cybersecurity-related issues. The output of these products and services aims to provide or assist in the curation of information about the identities, motivations, characteristics and methods of threats, commonly referred to as tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). The intent is to enable better decision making and improve security technology capabilities to reduce the likelihood and impact of a potential compromise. Threat intelligence (TI) products and services support the different stages of a TI process life cycle. In particular, this involves defining the aims and objectives, collecting and processing intelligence originating from various sources, analyzing and disseminating it to different stakeholders within the organization, and regularly providing feedback on the entire process. These products and services support ongoing security investigations and assist in preventing future breaches by prioritizing infrastructure hardening. TI tools and services are most commonly cloud-based products and services, but can also be delivered “as a service.”