What is Penetration Testing

Most companies have their own set of cybersecurity tools––like anti-virus software, encryption codes, and vulnerability scanning––but how sure are you that these tools will be able to protect you in a real attack? Putting it in basic terms, penetration testing or pentesting involves a simulated real-world attack on a network or application. During the test, vulnerabilities are identified within your organization’s infrastructure and recommendations are made on how best to fix those weaknesses.

Penetration testing has been standard security practice for a decade or more now, and for good reason: by simulating the malicious threats your organization faces, within a controlled and safe environment, it’s possible to identify the potential vulnerabilities that could let the real bad guys in. Knowing your vulnerabilities and how attackers might exploit them provides tremendous insight that you can use to improve your security posture. Pen testing not only helps to improve security, but can also facilitate a more efficient and effective use of budgetary resources.

Our penetration testing service assesses your systems for potential security issues, vulnerabilities or any insecure system configurations. Pen testing can also be used to assess weaknesses in security processes or security countermeasures such as firewalls and WAF’s. Pen testing can involve the attempted breaching of any number of application systems, (e.g., application protocol interfaces (APIs), frontend/backend servers) to uncover vulnerabilities, such as unsanitized inputs that are susceptible to code injection attacks.

The introduction of GDPR in 2018 has also meant strict penalties for those who suffer a breach, and fail to report it to the authorities.

However we suggest that you should forget the ‘cost-per-record’ for a breach where data is stolen, or even the potential fines from regulatory bodies; just a post-breach investigation, incident mitigation and reputational damage can be enough to make some businesses struggle to survive.