What Can Penetration Testing Do for Your Business?

An enterprise understands the importance of safeguarding their information from hackers. Such people are capable of taking down your network, penetrating your internal security and defacing your website. Penetration testing which is also known as ethical hacking is a perfect solution to this problem. Businesses get into contracts with such ethical hackers to do their best in attacking their security systems, in the same way that a criminal might attack their business. However, this procedure is done without causing any damage to the systems. The result of this testing is a focused report that explains the security loopholes in the system, as well as the solutions to the problems.

The following example can explain penetration testing in a simpler way. If one day you return from a party late at night and leave the keys at the door, that will be called a vulnerability. An automatic scan might offer the following suggestions to your wife – 'remove the keys', 'install a swipe card system' or even 'kick him out of the house'.

On the other hand, a penetration tester might find out that you had the sense to bolt the door from inside: i.e, the situation was not as high risk as you had thought. The pen tester would further take the keys, try the back door and steal your car. This way, the vulnerabilities are exploited to find the true impact of the weakness, rather than theoretical guessing. Advantages of a manual penetration tester rather than an automated system, is that a pen tester is more likely to discover the true risks to your information assets.

Your Business Can Benefit from Different Types of Penetration Tests, Such As:

White box test: Complete knowledge is provided in advance, about the systems which are supposed to be tested. This is a very thorough process of penetration testing.

Black box test: In this kind of testing, there is no knowledge of the system being tested. It mimics the actions of an unethical hacker.

Pen Testing Consists of the following Phases:

Research: Check all the information available publicly about the IT deployment of the company, network addresses, etc, that can be exploited by a potential attacker.

Enumeration: Scan by appointment and identify the architectural features, as well as the systems of the organization.

Exploitation: Analyze the potential of an attack, just stopping short of causing a disruption to the system.

Analyzing and reporting: Report vulnerabilities, examine all the findings, reach a conclusion and inform the client.

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