So what is Penetration Testing?

 

You wouldn’t be alone if you were confused about what exactly Penetration Testing is. It’s often confused with a “vulnerability scan”, “security assessment” or “compliance audit”, but penetration testing is so much more than a quick check of your organisation’s security credentials.

Penetration testing doesn’t stop at simply unveiling your organisation’s security vulnerabilities: it should always go further, actively exploiting those flaws and exposing the real-life potential for attack. This means tracking the journey an attacker may make in an attempt to break through the security of your company via its IT assets, data, employees and physical security.

While a vulnerability scan or security audit can be fruitfully completed using automated tools and process frameworks, penetration testing requires the experience and lateral thinking of a human team. Even the most sophisticated counter-measure technologies can be exposed by the human will to access information that is limited to them.

Why would my organisation need Penetration Testing?

The benefits of penetration testing are based in its real life outcomes. Penetration testing takes your online and/or offline security and deliberately breaks it. The final result is an ability to see and ask yourself where your organisation is succeeding and failing when it comes to actively defending its data against a skilled and determined human attack.

When employing Penetration Testing multiple routes of attack will be explored against a single target. This gives organisations the opportunity to assess what their most valuable assets are and create suitable security measures in order to protect them.

What’s the cost of inaction?

If you’re storing data or identifiable information on your software devices, that data is vulnerable.Penetration testing is going to find out how.

Businesses around Australia are hacked between five to 10 times a week. Cyber criminals, located around the world, are looking for profitable businesses with identifiable data. This data can by encrypted and then held for ransom.

Those businesses storing credit card details have the most to lose, both finically and in terms of customer confidence. Penetration testing helps businesses not fall into ‘ransom trap’ — paying off hackers in return for decrypted data.

To find out more about the cost of hiring a private investigator click here.

How valuable is Penetration Testing?

Getting value out of penetration testing depends on two things: why you’re doing it and who is doing it for you. We’ll help you determine your goals and develop a workable degree of scope in our testing. If you’re simply after a compliance tick and a branded assessment the value of your penetration testing will be minimal. If you’re genuinely invested in protecting your company’s IP and data, then penetration testing is a necessity.

What do I need to know about Penetration Testing before I start?

Penetration testing is a deliberately high-risk endeavour. Professional pen-testers use all skills and assets available to pointedly invade your organisation. Things may break, alarms will go off and security will be breached. This is the point of pen testing and a clear bill of health may mean your pen tester isn’t doing their job right.

Will Penetration Testing affect business operations?

Before we begin a penetration test we’ll sit down with you to discuss the operations of your business in order to cause minimal downtime or damage to your profits or operating abilities. Similarly, you’ll need to provide access to facilities, both online and off, that may be penetrated during our operations. Having a clear understanding about what you want out of penetration testing will help us better define the degree of access and scope we’ll need to get you the best results.

Protect your business and intellectual property now. Get in contact with us today if you want to know more about penetration testing certification or getting a penetration testing report.