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Penetration testing, also known as “Pen Test”, is a critical aspect for your business and should be executed at regular intervals for a highly secure system with zero vulnerabilities. Let us define the concept more technically and then we will look at numerous advantages of this testing process and how it helps your business against any kind of security issues and data breaches and also to keep the attackers away.
The process of ethically attacking your computer systems and penetrating deep into the susceptible zones of the application to expose the possible vulnerabilities is known as Penetration Testing. This is widely used for the augmentation of Web Application Firewall (WAF) in web application security. A very common example of a penetration test is email phishing to access critical information like account details, passwords, etc. Also, using unencrypted passwords shared over a network for data breaching.
Based on your requirements the penetration test to be executed on your system can vary from one type to another. On a broader level, there are 4 kinds of penetration testing.
These are:
This type of pen test allows you to get your systems’ network attacked from off-site zones. The job is carried out by a professional ethical hacker based on the agreements of following controlled and ethical hacking techniques only. The main purpose of using this type of penetration testing is to get exposure to the vulnerabilities for your external-facing network system infrastructure.
In this kind of testing, attacks are made on the system from within the organization. It is carried out to patch the exposed vulnerabilities and security holes that in otherwise scenarios could be taken advantage of by the intruders.
Out of all kinds of system infrastructures, online business portals and websites are most prone to cyber-attacks and security threats because they are all by nature easily accessible throughout the globe and are very transparent.
Social Engineering penetration testing techniques include fraud SMSs, email phishing, USB drops, etc. This testing procedure aims to find and get the hold of loopholes associated with the people (end customers) involved within and outside the organization.
To make the job easy for teams, there are many penetration testing tools available in the market that provide penetration testing services. These are the software programs that allow you to check for any system infrastructure vulnerabilities, and security loopholes. Let us take a look at some of the renowned and widely used tools one by one.
However, it is important to understand and analyze the system’s behavior and the target audience before opting for any of the available tools. A thorough report-based analysis and compatibility checks of the tools in the picture with the target systems/applications would give a clear idea of which way to go for. You can also look for many other open-source security testing tools here.
Also read- Penetration Testing Tools
Penetration tests are essential for ensuring that your systems’ infrastructure is in the right posture and is risk-free. Below is a list of some proven advantages of penetration testing:
By now it’s quite clear how important it is to consider and get hold of the Network penetration testing for your business. It helps companies to gain deeper insights on security levels and helps them to strengthen their business’s cyber security posture. Moreover, this is something that should not be considered to be a one-time activity. To have a firm and secured network baseline, it is important to conduct penetration testing at regularly scheduled intervals to check for any new or updated security weaknesses and close the doors to the possible attacks as quickly as possible.
Also read- Penetration Testing Guide