Evaluating Security Requirements

Regulatory compliance often dictates specific security testing requirements. PCI DSS explicitly requires vulnerability scanning and code reviews, typically satisfied by DAST and SAST respectively. HIPAA emphasizes risk assessments that benefit from comprehensive testing approaches. GDPR's privacy by design principles align with shift-left security through SAST. Understanding compliance requirements helps identify mandatory versus optional testing approaches.

Risk tolerance varies dramatically between organizations and applications. Financial services processing transactions demand near-zero false negatives, potentially justifying multiple testing approaches despite higher costs. Internal applications might accept some risk in exchange for development velocity. Customer-facing applications require balanced approaches that ensure security without impeding feature delivery. Risk assessment should drive tool selection rather than default to maximum coverage regardless of context.

Threat landscape considerations influence testing priorities. Organizations facing advanced persistent threats need comprehensive coverage across all vulnerability types. Those primarily concerned with opportunistic attacks might focus on common vulnerabilities that automated tools detect well. Industry-specific threats—like injection attacks in web applications or memory corruption in embedded systems—guide specialized tool requirements. Threat modeling should inform security testing strategy.