How to Implement Penetration Testing Consulting Services

In the wake of increased cyber security attacks on organizations in every industry, companies are looking for ways to improve their security posture. Nowadays the saying that it is not a matter of if you will get hacked, it’s a matter of when, has never been truer. For organizations that are just starting to make cybersecurity a priority, implementing penetration testing consulting services is a critical first step.

What is Penetration Testing?
The goal of a penetration test is to keep your organization’s confidential and critical data safe from malicious attacks. During a penetration test, the tester will test to see how they can leverage the vulnerabilities in your environment to steal and tamper with important data. By acting as a hacker, they can patch these vulnerabilities before they are exploited with malicious intent. Unlike vulnerability testing, where the tester is looking for weaknesses in an environment, in a penetration test, the tester is searching for ways to exploit these vulnerabilities. By testing out the ways in which a hacker could exploit vulnerabilities, the engineer can evaluate if your security controls are strong enough to counteract a security breach.

Why Should You Implement Penetration Testing Consulting Services?
Compliance with industry standard security policies is a top priority for many organizations. Non- compliance with standards can result in expensive fines. Aside from just meeting the standards of your industry, having good security posture is critical during this time of increased cyber-attacks. Keeping employee, company, and customer data safe should always be a top priority for all organizations. A breach of customer data can not only cause you to lose money, but you can also lose your customer’s trust in your organization. When you implement penetration testing consulting services, a team of security experts will test your organization’s security environment with the aim of securing weaknesses before they are exploited by a hacker. This is an important step in maintaining the security of your company and customer information.

How Does a Pen Test Work?
Penetration Testing Consulting Services can be performed in either an automated or manual manner. The benefit of conducting automated testing is that during an automated scan, your security environment will be continuously scanned and rescanned without prompting. The benefit of a manual penetration test is that the tester can use their own intuition as a certified ethical hacker to find false positives or gaps in the automated test. Many security experts recommend a combination of the two in order to get the best results. The typical steps associated with penetration testing consulting services include:

·         Automated Security Scanning: commercial scanning tools will be used to identify any potential vulnerabilities

·         Report Development and Interpretation: the results of the scan will be analyzed, and false positives will be reviewed

·         Network Architecture Review: review and identify any weaknesses in the network security design

·         Manual Exploit Testing: validate weaknesses that were found in the automated report in a manual in-depth test

·         Security Policy Review: review organization's security policies and find areas of weakness

·         Automated Security Re-Scan

3 Types of Penetration Testing Consulting Services

·          Internal Penetration Testing: Simulates an attack coming from the inside of the company. This could be either a malicious employee or someone that has taken over an internal account

·         External Penetration Testing: During an external penetration test, the engineer will simulate an attack coming from the outside of an organization. This involves scanning for open ports, probing services or login attempts.

·         Web Application Penetration Testing: This type of penetration test is designed to help you meet the best practices for PCI, HIPAA, or Red Flag industry standards. During this test, the engineer will attempt to gain unauthorized access to systems connected to a web application.

Why Regular Testing is Critical
It is critical to implement penetration testing consulting services on a regular basis because it allows you to be proactive instead of reactive in your security approach. A penetration test evaluates the weaknesses in your environment at one point in time. At any point there can be additional weaknesses that can be taken advantage of by a hacker. By conducting these tests regularly, you can patch these weaknesses before a hacker finds them and exploits your data.