Penetration Testing

What Is Penetration Testing?

In the first instance, this could look like a complex jargon. But in simple words, penetration testing refers to the process of simulating a cyber attack against your product or computer system to identify security loopholes, compromise centers and vulnerabilities. This is similar to debugging your code, where all the errors are listed so you could fix them.

Penetration testing or pen testing doesn’t necessarily have to be automated or simulated, it could be done manually to pinpoint vulnerabilities.

Why Is Penetration Testing Important

Apart from the blatant fact that pen testing helps you develop a more secure product that is airtight, it offers the following advantages.

• It allows you to learn more about security weaknesses that you didn’t know existed in your system. It’s these involuntary loopholes that attackers love.
• It gives you a chance to test your organization’s security policies and assess how adherent they are to mandatory compliances.
• It assesses your employees’ knowledge of security standards and protocols and their capability to respond to attacks and incidents.
• It offers a glimpse of how attackers perceive your product or app and simulate attack so they could fix before attackers get to your products first.
• It offers a glimpse of how attackers perceive your product or app and simulate attack so they could fix before attackers get to your products first.

When Should I Carry Out Penetration Testing?

Consider penetration testing like visiting your dentist. You get your tooth checked once a year and do casual visits whenever you spot minor concerns. Penetration testing follows a similar approach as well.

Ideally, you should perform penetration testing every year to ensure your security across networks and products is optimized. Apart from the regular assessment, you should also mandatorily carry out penetration testing, whenever –

• You add a new application or network infrastructure
• You set up a new office in a new location
• You implement security patches
• You roll out major updates to your apps or products
• You amend user policies

Types of Penetration Testing

Internal Testing

This involves running a test behind your application’s firewall by simulating a rogue employee. A rogue employee cannot be just a malicious insider but somebody whose online credentials were exposed to phishing attacks.

External Testing

The most common form of penetration testing, this involves targeting the tangible assets of the company on the surface of the internet. This includes your website, web application, DNS, email and more. The purpose here is to gain access to extract confidential data.

Targeted Testing

More of a testing drill, where hackers and security architects work simultaneously to outperform each other. This allows the security team to assess if they could curtail a real-time attack and think from the perspective of a hacker.

Blind Testing

As the name suggests, a tester in blind testing only knows the name of the enterprise or the company that is targeted. This drill gives an idea of the mind of a hacker and chart his path into breaking in.

Double-Blind Testing

In this method, the security architect in your team does not have a clue of the attack (nor that it’s a simulation). This gives you an idea of the architect’s capabilities as he is completely unaware and unprepared for the breach.

How To Go About Executing Penetration Testing

Now, as you saw, penetration testing is complex and involves technical skills. That’s why we recommend getting it done with professionals who keep mastering the art of cybersecurity with consistent exposure like us.

We follow industry-standard protocols and work with sophisticated architects, who bring their white-hat hacking skills to the table to present you with an extensive report on where your company stands in terms of security. We deploy the following strategies and techniques to assess your network and products for their vulnerabilities:

Once the flaws are identified, we provide you with

• Vulnerability Identification and Exploitation
• Wireless Testing
• Social Engineering
• Information Gathering
• Web App Pen Testing
• Network Mapping
• VPN Testing
• RAS Testing and more

With all these, we provide an executive summary of the report so you could take corrective measures accordingly.

To get started with penetration testing, reach out to us.