Does My Business Need Penetration Testing?

A penetration test, often known as a pen test or ethical hacking, is an authorised simulated cyberattack to determine security weaknesses.

Pen tests assess a computer system's security and determine the likelihood of unauthorised persons gaining access to confidential and private data.

Every year, we witness record-breaking amounts of cyber-attacks, with hackers becoming more clever than ever. So, if your existing cyber-defenses don't include more than anti-virus software and a firewall, you could be putting yourself at risk.

With so many threats to be aware of, penetration testing is one of the best methods and investments that will prepare your business or company for cyber attacks.

How Penetration Testing Works

Identify and Prioritise Vulnerabilities in Your Network’s Cybersecurity Architecture

A tester will begin by looking at your vital information systems to see if there are any places that are particularly vulnerable to attack. A list of vulnerabilities will then be generated, and these will be prioritised, or listed in order of severity for the organisation to address.

System flaws that pose a high risk to the business should always be addressed first.

Perform Internal and External Penetration Testing

A pen tester will create tests to attack the system once any potential weak points are identified to see if they might be exploited by a cybercriminal.

Penetration testing is generally conducted either internally or externally via the internet.

Internal Penetration

This sort of testing evaluates security from the perspective of an internal user or someone who has physical access to the organisation's facilities. Internal penetration testing is carried out from within an organisation, either via a LAN or through wireless networks. The testing will see if protected company information can be accessed from systems behind corporate firewalls.

External Penetration

This sort of testing evaluates an organisation's infrastructure from the internet, outside of the perimeter firewall. It evaluates the situation from the perspective of an online hacker, a rival, or a supplier with limited knowledge of the internet-facing environment. External pen testing assesses the security measures established on the access routers, firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), and Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) that safeguard the perimeter.

Repair Issues and Conduct Retests if Necessary

Once the company's weak areas have been identified, it is up to them to close the gaps in their security. After these fixes have been made, it's typical for penetration testing to be performed again to check whether any issues persist.

Why Businesses Need Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is used to evaluate the effectiveness of existing security protections in the real world against a skilled attacker who may use several attack methods to exploit a flaw. This is beneficial since it allows you to correct any flaws before an attacker discovers them.

Create Effective Security Measures

The primary, and perhaps most obvious, reason for doing a penetration test is to ensure security. You want to be sure that your business is safe and that no one can steal the vital information you collect. This could be Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about your customers that would damage your reputation if stolen, a trade secret on how to improve your product, or something legally needed to be protected, such as credit card information.

Find Vulnerabilities Before Cybercriminals Do

The most reliable technique to assess your security is to look into how it can be hacked. A penetration test allows you to test your system's resistance to external hacking efforts in a secure manner. It simulates the behaviors of a prospective intruder by attempting to exploit flaws in code, software problems, unsecured settings, service configuration faults, and/or operational flaws.

The main difference between a penetration test and a real hacking experience is that a penetration test is conducted in a safe and controlled environment. It solely serves to demonstrate the possible harm of a hostile hacking attempt by simulating an actual attack scenario and exploiting the vulnerabilities.

Reduce Network Downtime and Remediation Costs

According to a recent survey, the global average cost of a data breach in 2018 is $3.86 million, up 6.4 percent over the previous year's figure. The cost of recovering from a security breach can run into thousands of dollars or even millions of dollars, depending on how much money you spend on customer protection programs, regulatory fines, and lost business operations.

A penetration test is a proactive approach for finding the most critical flaws in your IT systems and preventing serious financial and reputational damages for your company. However, you must run frequent penetration tests at least once or twice a year to ensure business continuity. You can ask the advice of professional security analysts on the minimal number of penetration tests that your business domain and IT infrastructure need.

Compliance with Security Regulations

As your company grows, you are required to meet certain regulations. If you gather health information, credit card information, government information, or PII, or if you provide services to companies that do, you are likely subject to compliance regulations. Regular pen tests can help you stay compliant with security requirements imposed by top security standards like PCI, HIPAA, and ISO 27001, and avoid the high fines that come with noncompliance.

Maintain the Company's Reputation and Customer Loyalty

Customers are becoming increasingly anxious about whether their data is being safely held with a corporation, as data breaches have become commonplace in the headlines. A penetration test can assist them in seeing that a company is secure. Security breaches can expose sensitive information, resulting in the loss of loyal consumers and major reputational damage. Penetration testing can assist you in avoiding costly security breaches that jeopardise your company's brand and client loyalty.

Also, if the system demands more scope, a pen test can be used in conjunction with vulnerability scanning to give you even more information about your IT infrastructure's vulnerabilities and potential breach points.

Overall, penetration testing can give you an accurate picture of your company's "health" and resistance to cyber-attacks. Penetration test findings are now a standard question on vendor security questionnaires, and you should expect to undertake them if you want to assure, and show that your system is secure and credible.

A penetration test employs the exact approaches that a real criminal would use to penetrate your defenses. It may assist you in prioritizing security investments, adhering to industry rules, and developing effective defensive mechanisms so that your company is secured from invaders in the long run.

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