Due to the coronavirus outbreak, more and more people are exploring the virtual world. While staying safe at home, classes, conferences, concerts, religious gatherings, business operations, and other activities are now being staged or practiced. Cybersecurity should then be discussed more than ever, as more individuals try to exploit other people's vulnerabilities online.
To guarantee that your tools and configurations can face and overcome these threats, you need to perform penetration testing.
What is a Penetration Test?
To put things simply, a penetration test (or pen test) is a comprehensive way of assessing an organization's cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Experienced cybersecurity experts check your network, application, device, and physical security to identify areas where your security posture may need improvement to overcome threats brought by malicious actors.
Pen testing identifies an organization's weak spots as well as measures the compliance of its security policy. A pen test can highlight a company's weaknesses in its security policies. For example, a company's security policy may only focus on preventing and detecting attacks on their systems. However, it does not cover how to expel such attacks when it happens. A pen test will be useful in revealing these gray areas.
Thus, through penetration testing, a company may precisely prioritize their investments in improving its security. The pen test is also beneficial on the part of web and app developers. Once they know how hackers break into their application, they can improve on creating more secure apps and avoid making the same errors in the future.
Common Penetration Testing Methods
Internal Testing: In this method, a tester has access to the company’s internal network. Internal testing allows a company to see how much damage an angry or displeased employee may bring from behind their firewall.
External Testing: External testing aims to access and get valuable data through a company asset that is available online such as the company website, email, and domain name servers (DNS). Sometimes, the tester may need to conduct the attack from a remote location outside the company building, like from inside a nearby parked truck.
Blind Testing: For this method, you only provide a tester with the target enterprise's name. Through this, security personnel are shown in real-time how an application assault may take place.
Double-Blind Testing: Security personnel have no idea that you are simulating an attack during a double-blind test (or covert test). As such, they would not have the time to prop up their defenses before the breach.
Targeted Testing: In this method, both the security personnel and the tester work as a team to keep each other appraised of each other's movements. It is an essential training exercise that can give security teams real-time feedback from a malicious hacker's perspective.
How to Conduct Pen Tests
Like in most processes, the pen test begins with a reconnaissance phase where the tester gathers data and information to use for the planned simulated attack on a company. After this, the tester will start trying to gain and maintain access to the target system, which they can do through a variety of tools.
These tools used for an attack may include software designed to produce brute-force attacks or SQL injections. There is also hardware that you can plug into a computer to gain remote access to the network. Moreover, testers may also utilize social engineering techniques when trying to look for vulnerabilities, such as phishing emails to company employees or disguising themselves as delivery people to get access to the building.
The tester ends up the test by covering their tracks by removing any embedded hardware and avoiding detection and leaving the target system as they found it.
ITUNeed For Your Pen Testing Needs
Evaluate your IT systems and prevent any cybersecurity threats with ITUNeed Cybersecurity and Cloud Solutions. With our penetration testing services, we can find your company’s weak spots and develop plans to improve your system for the best business operations. Or better yet, have your web developers team up with us to ensure your website is safe too!
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