Agile software development Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Agile software development - Assignment Example To begin with, the state of many operating environments of software systems is such that any vulnerability is likely to attract exploits (Paul, 2012). This calls for software testers that are focused, diligent and thorough to ensure that the delivered software products do harbor any vulnerability. Just like the software testers, hackers constantly make efforts to have their hacking skills updated. With such an effort, the hackers increase their ability to identify and exploit newer system vulnerabilities. Thus, testing like a hacker means that a software tester assumes the role of a hacker to be better placed in identifying the security hitches of a system. Secondly, hackers have the main intention of doing what other people have not been able to do and this is why they able to discover system vulnerabilities. To counteract such intentions, testers have to think outside the box about the possible system weakness that attackers and hackers can find attractive. Nothing would be as paining as a tester carrying out a vulnerability assessment only for someone to come after him to find something that he failed to identify. Furthermore, the focus, time and effort spent in a testing activity will dictate the success level of a software project (Khurana, 2009). Based on these facts, testing like a hacker means that a software tester in his effort to eliminate system weaknesses might need to go beyond the testing scope specified in the Test Plan. Finally, the exploitation is known to be a mission for circumventing the security controls of a system by launching an exploit. In the software world, exploits are bugs or issues within the software code that allow hackers to execute or launch payloads against the target software system (P, 2013). Payload here refers to a means of having the target machine turned into a puppet and forcing it to make our wishes. The payloads have the danger of altering the intended software