Perceptions of Practitioners on Security-Related Software Testing in a Mobile Software Development Company.

Context: The concern with the security of software assets increases and makes the companies seek guarantees that the data stored by them is safe from unauthorized access and theft. These concerns are also applicable to the mobile software context and, as the devices have various capabilities, many security breaches may occur and expose users' data. Thus, to guarantee security, the software testing process also includes security-related tests. Objective: empirically analyze the perceptions of practitioners from the mobile software testing environment on security-related testing topics. Method: A survey was performed among 49 software testing practitioners from a mobile software development company in Brazil regarding their perception of security testing practices. Results: We observed that there is a concern about security among the practitioners. On the other hand, the respondents indicated that there is also a lack of knowledge about the topics discussed. Conclusions: the results showed the general importance of the security testing practices by the practitioners as well as triggered the need for the creation of methods and techniques for better integration of security testing practices in the mobile software development, and also reinforced the need for improving the security culture in organizations.