Penetration Testing

The escalating threat of hackers grows more serious each day. A TechRepublic survey of more than 400 IT security professionals found that 71% of them had seen an increase in security threats or attacks since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. Should a hacker successfully breach your defenses, the damages—to your reputation, bottom line, and operational capabilities—could be catastrophic.To gauge your cybersecurity defenses and spot vulnerabilities in your critical IT systems, you need to consider different types of penetration testing.

One of the measures that organizations have undertaken in recent years to ensure the integrity of their information networks is to undergo a procedure called an external penetration testing.  

An external vulnerability scan, which also goes by the names penetration testing or ethical hacking, is an authorized concerted cyber attack on any number of application systems that are visible on the internet, such as a company website, and email and domain servers. 

The purpose of external vulnerability scanning is to identify, evaluate, and address any potential or existing security issues, which cyber criminals may use to gain access to a company’s information systems and illegally obtain proprietary information. 

With each passing year the risk of cyberthreat looms larger. While the integration of new technologies has created business efficiencies and increased interconnectivity, it has also exposed organizations to new forms of cyber-related risks. In response to this growing problem, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) produced the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). The framework serves as guidelines for managing your cybersecurity risks. One of the best ways to assess your adherence to NIST is by conducting a NIST-based penetration (pen) test. But what does the pentest framework entail? 

By following the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES), companies of all sizes are capable of executing an effective pen test that exposes any issues in their cybersecurity. By conducting penetration (pen) testing, you can determine how a hacker would attack your systems by watching an assault unfold in a controlled environment. And the only way to ensure that this kind of test will work is to make sure it meets certain standards.

In today’s world, the technology we use has evolved at an exponential rate. It wasn’t long ago that the idea of seamless internet over a wired connection was little more than a pipe dream. And yet here we are in a world where virtually all businesses run on high-speed internet free from cables. But it’s also opened us up to a host of cybercriminal threats. One of the best ways to test for these vulnerabilities? Wireless penetration testing.

As technology advances hackers employ increasingly complex schemes to penetrate organizations’ cyber defenses and wreak havoc on the system. To prepare for this evolving threat you have to get into the mind of the hacker—you have to think like they do. And the best way to do this is by performing an internal penetration (pen) test.

In 2019 cybercrime cost businesses and individuals $3.5 billion dollars in losses, an almost 30 percent increase from the $2.7 billion lost in 2018. This isn’t simply an annual uptick in cybercrime, hackers are now employing new, sophisticated tactics and techniques to penetrate systems.

Cyberattacks are increasing in scale, scope, and complexity with every passing day. As hackers and their attack methods become more sophisticated your business must respond in kind or else have your security perimeter overwhelmed.

Just as schools and workplaces test fire alarm systems throughout the year, companies implement penetration testing, or pen testing, to confirm that the security protocols sufficiently protect the network, systems, and facilities to the greatest extent. Pen testing isn’t just a means of bolstering shareholder confidence or fulfilling industry standards; rather, it’s also a way of preventing attacks through a proactive security policy. Looking to learn more about the pen test certification process? Our experts can help. Read on to learn more now!

Today, cyber-attacks on organizations are almost unavoidable given the prevailing circumstances in the cyberworld. Despite the proliferation of cybersecurity regulations all over the world, security breaches continue unabated. It’s become imperative for organizations to take measures to test the controls that are supposed to secure their networks to see if they are working. One of these measures is penetration testing.