S 4.65 Testing of new hardware and software

Initiation responsibility: IT Security Officer, Head of IT

Implementation responsibility: Head of IT, IT Security Officer

Before new hardware components and software programs are employed in the production environment, they must be checked on special testing systems. In addition to testing the functionality of a new product, it is of particular importance to check whether its use has any negative influence on the IT systems involved. As damaging functions cannot be ruled out before successful tests and as errors are provoked during tests, the testing systems in use should always be isolated from the actual production environment.

The use of isolated testing systems is also required to check self-extracting files, such as those received via e-mail, for damaging functions.

General procedures for software acceptance and release, including testing, are described in module S 1.10 Standard software. Only after passing all tests should new components be released for installation on production systems.

Review questions:

• Have all new IT components been tested prior to actual use?
• Are the tests only carried out on isolated test systems?