Information technology consists of confusing jargons that may sound weird to people unfamiliar with the field. You might have heard of cookies, bots or phishing and ended up having a different idea than intended. Web application testing also has a share of alien terms: black box and white box. Before you experience a headache from trying to grasp these terms, understanding the process of checking of web applications can help. Simply put, web application testing or scanning is a method used for executing manual or automatic checks on possible vulnerabilities of files and software. Remember that software are created by humans so it is prone to errors or loopholes. Before a cybercriminal can use these flaws to his/her advantage, these tests are routinely performed as a pro-active measure.

The process of verifying the security of an application is categorized as either black box or white box testing. Both share a common goal in checking web application security via consistency in predicted usage scenarios. Black box testing means the person responsible for performing the diagnostics has zero knowledge on how a specific system works. This is comparable to an attacker’s approach wherein the information that will be gained is dependent on monitoring running instances. Vulnerabilities are not easily detected using this method compared to white box testing. The latter refers to web application security scanning with a clear idea of the architecture of the system. Source codes are accessible in this case so it can operate in as static environment. In selecting which of the two methods works best for your applications, factors such as allocated assessment time, goals, and accessibility should be taken into consideration.