What Is Penetration Testing?

What Is Penetration Testing?

Penetration Testing Definition

 The art of exploiting weaknesses and vulnerabilities in networks, web applications, or people. This is different than just performing a vulnerability scan against your network. A penetration test takes the perspective of an outside intruder or an internal individual with malicious intent. This may not always involve technology, however technical controls are a big part of preventing easy exploitation and data compromise. 

Get Peace Of Mind With Real World Penetration Testing And Services

 Too often, organizations take a narrow, reactive approach to cyber security. But we work with companies to help them block hackers proactively, pointing you to small and often overlooked gaps that might allow intruders into your systems to access highly sensitive data—leading to significant monetary loss. 

Why Should You Conduct A Penetration Test?

Even with the strongest security and safeguards in place, vulnerabilities exist and open your company to unknown risk. Those gaps might be as unsuspecting as a database, an application, website access—even your own employees. And any of those access points could provide a direct route into confidential electronic data, such as financials, patient information, strategic or classified documents.

Pentest services delve deeper to pinpoint pathways to access, ranking the potential value of each and providing a clear roadmap for remediation. A penetration test is not only smart business practice but also an annual requirement for those who must remain in compliance with leading regulations like PCI, FERPA, HITECH, FISMA, SOX, GLBA, FACTA, and GDPR.

Let our team of experienced, ethical hackers conduct a comprehensive assessment of potential vulnerabilities, prioritizing those and recommending ways to block attacks before they damage your bottom line.

The Different Types Of Penetration Testing Services.

  1. External Network Penetration Testing. We pinpoint potential avenues of network attack where access might be gained through internet-connected servers or network equipment by individuals outside of your organization who lack appropriate rights or credentials. We then conduct a mock attack to test security controls, developing and presenting you with a cybersecurity assessment on findings along with solutions and recommendations you can use to remediate the issue.
  2. Internal Network Penetration Testing. We help companies mitigate risk due to internal threats against their corporate network. While external testing investigates avenues that remote hackers might use to enter networks, internal testing looks at ways employees or insiders might lead to a breach either through neglect, malice, or the accidental download of an application, such as ransomware or malware, which has the potential to bring an entire network down.
  3. Application Penetration Testing.We investigate potential threats and vulnerabilities posed by the many internet-based applications in use throughout your enterprise. Conveniently accessed from any location worldwide and just as easily breached, web applications offer significant points of access into credit card, customer, and financial data. Vulnerability assessment services investigate the security of those solutions and controls in place, providing recommendations and strategies to block access to any data that might be stored within.
  4. Wireless Penetration Testing.We bring advanced expertise in a range of wireless technologies, offering ethical hacking services to investigate and identify potential access points where hackers could enter your internal network. This involves threat assessment and security control audits for traditional Wi-Fi and specialized systems. We then compile findings into a cybersecurity assessment report complete with recommendations you can put into place to mitigate damage.
  5. Social Engineering Penetration Testing.We survey employees to see how well they understand your organization’s information security policies and practices, so you know how easily an unauthorized party might convince staff into sharing confidential information. Social engineering penetration testing might include badge access points and mock phishing attacks or password update requests. We’ll then recommend ways to improve success through training or new processes that help employees better protect sensitive data.

Our Process.

We begin with a simple question: what’s the least probable access point a criminal might use to gather intelligence that provides the greatest potential impact on your bottom line? From this question, we outline possible targets of attack and entry points via electronic, physical, and human means. This includes information your own employees might publish in the public domain, weaknesses in email passwords or log ins, remote access, and mobile footprints. We then perform reconnaissance over the span of several days to assess potential vulnerabilities from all angles.

Next, we put ourselves in your potential attackers’ shoes to determine overall risk and valuation. Based on what we know about current capabilities, strategies, techniques, and tools, we document any digital assets you might have at risk. We then prioritize that risk based on the net asset value were a loss event to occur.

To put our findings to the test, we simulate ethical hacking attacks that are primarily focused on high value target assets. Those tests are customized to align with your unique environment, vulnerabilities, and technologies. Findings are prioritized and compiled into our recommendations to help you focus resources on areas that could mitigate the greatest potential loss.

The Penetration Testing Report.

We present a detailed report on findings and results, giving you an overall picture of your security posture. Pentest reports are customized to help each organization meet their initial objectives and tailored to their own industry and regulatory environment.

Included in our report is a high-level overview and technical details around each penetration test along with your overall risk score. Know the probability, strength, and estimated loss potential of an attack along with controls currently in place to obstruct that event. Ensure requisite steps are taken to comply with PCI, FERPA, GLBA, SOX, HIPAA, or GDPR. You’ll also gain actionable insight and recommendations to reduce your risk in the short-, mid-, and long-term.

See More Information on our Penetration Testing Brochure