Penetration Testing Best Practices And Challenges For Organizations

Companies invest heavily in security plans with the latest solutions and infrastructures; however, without testing, there is no plan to determine their effectiveness in case of an attack. Taking the most recent BBC example, where they had a server hacked by a Russian cybercriminal.

As the FTP server is connected to most other servers on any provided network, somebody gaining access to it is free to surf the whole network. Such vulnerability of internal information is clearly a big risk for all and any companies. This security breach serves beyond proof the crucial demand of penetration testing.

Penetration testing

Penetration testing is nothing but an enactment of a potential hacker to recognize the vulnerabilities of a business security system, both internal and external.

Otherwise called Pen testers, look for security loopholes in the industry and instead of reporting on them they dig deeper into the system for further potential flaws. You can also find best penetration testing services provider via various online resources.

And with the rise of cloud-based services, compliance has become a rising concern. Here comes penetration testing as a reliable program to test and certify the company’s security best practices.

Make the most of the Pen Test

For an efficient penetration test, the definition of probable attack situations is necessary for addition to the coverage of industry frameworks such as WASC, OWASP, CERT, and SANS.

Documentation of the penetration testing purpose and exclusion (if any) of the laws of engagement is necessary, which means the restriction on duration and acceptable working hours unusually if the target application environment is alive composition system.

The credible attack scenarios must be based on the threat profile of the target company application platform, which must cover: idea of the business application, operational criticality of the application, analysis of data processed or stored by the application, mode of access to the application and related access control measures to defend the business information and information processing system.

Penetration testing must deliver reproducible results with supporting evidence by following a repeatable methodology that is established and documented.

The tools, scripts, and manual techniques must be proven and evaluated prior utilizing them in live production environments. Revalidation of identified security findings from automated tools through manual assessment and alternate scripts or tools is necessary in order to minimize the reporting of false positives or negatives.

Top Penetration Testing Challenges for Companies

 · Assuming that the adjustment of vulnerabilities identified in pen testing will assure the total security of the system

 · Approving the target and regularity of pen test

 · Determining the risk associated with disclosure of important data and failure of the syste

 · Understanding differentiation between penetration testing and vulnerability scanning

 · Determining what type of pen testing is needed

 · Determining the test coverage

What is external and Internal Penetration Test?

External penetration testing is a test that helps you verify the safety of your system through the internet connection from outside IP address. 

If you have a website then a hacker can try to get all important information that you are trying to hide through the internet.

Internal Test, on the other hand, is when a hacker will try to penetrate the organization's security using the penetration testing services provider computer. 

This will help you control the security system from inside jobs, both intentional and not intentional. The motive of this test is to check your organization's employees to have access to all of the data.