It is crucial to understand the concept behind penetration testing, and how it is beneficial to companies. In today’s ever-changing digital space, where the bulk of the information is stored in the net, protection is important. Learning how to protect your network from new or existing threats is the first step of proactive action, and helps a firm make its defense line more sound and secure. They say, one of the best ways to learn anything is by trial and error. There are two modes of penetration testing targets: black box and white box. A black box test is one where only the firm’s name is known, and penetration is created by the firm; while a white box test is where all the system info, as well as background data, is available for testing. Penetration allows your company to single out its weaknesses. On top, you get to identify which one of your defenses needs reinforcement and which ones are solid. Organizations, regardless of their size, are making use of penetration testing.
The basic idea of penetration testing is to emulate a real-world hacking attack as efficiently as possible. Employees can’t know that the test will happen. You should do a pen-test in the same way a fire-alarm drill is done. Sound the alarm without prior warning and carefully observe how your staff will respond.
Resources
The essential thing to know about pen-testing is that it has limited scope. Most organizations do not and cannot test all aspects of their security systems, mainly due to resource constraints- hiring an outside tester is very costly, too. Penetration tests are only done on the infrastructure you deem the most important in your business setup. Fortunately, you can take your pen-testing process to the next level by using Cobalt– a real-time, collaborative, and efficient testing platform.
The Credibility of the Tester
Do you trust the pen-tester? The thing is, only ethical hackers should perform penetration testing. But more than that, you should completely trust that individual with your networks and system. Just think about it. You’re handing someone (a stranger) the facts, knowledge, and secrets of your organization. The best thing to do is vet the guy you’ll be hiring as your pen-tester. Look for a certified penetration testing engineer who comes with a strong reputation.
Lead to Similar Damaging Results as an actual Hacking Attack
The purpose of a pen-test is to simulate an actual hacking threat, except in one thing. It shouldn’t be dangerous to your files, networks, or systems. You don’t want it to crash servers, corrupt sensitive data, or do any kind of thing that a real hacking attack would.
To overcome these weaknesses, you should consider a solution that makes it easy to implement a holistic, continuous testing procedure, which can expose a lot more security vulnerabilities throughout your system. It should conduct testing and validation of files and networks without ever putting your system in danger. And when you are finally ready to execute the test, hire a credible pen-tester!
