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Home » Blogs » Penetration Testing Best Practices in 2022
The reality that businesses must face is that it’s increasingly possible for less sophisticated attackers to carry out sophisticated cyber-attacks. It’s important to now guard against COVID-themed attacks involving phishing emails that impersonate government organisations, and a sharp rise in malware and ransomware.
Put simply, with more people working online, shopping online, and finding entertainment online, it’s time to take a serious look at the most effective strategies to combat the new breed of cyber-threats that have arisen. Pen testing plays an invaluable role.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the penetration testing strategies you can use to ensure your business’ data security and information security stays intact. Let’s get started.
Additional resources: If you need help explaining the value of cyber security to leadership, check out our free resource — Board Presentation Toolkit: Cyber Security and Threat Management
Penetration testing, or pen testing, is an authorised simulated cyber-attack on a computer system or network that is performed to evaluate the security of the system and to identify any security vulnerabilities. In simpler terms, it’s a simulated attack exercise where a cyber security expert attempts to find and exploit security vulnerabilities in your computer systems through the use of a testing process. The goal is to rectify and improve your security in order to prevent unauthorised access by malicious actors.
There are various types of pen testing in use today. Depending on the requirements of an organisation and its needs, one or more of these types can be used.
External network pen testing focuses on mimicking an internet-based attacker, and is focused on perimeter defence. Internal network pen testing looks for weaknesses that could be exploited by a malicious internal attacker, or an external attacker who has already breached the network perimeter.
Fundamentally, this is an important category of pen testing if mobile apps are used within your business environment — regardless of other types of pen testing that have already been undertaken.
Different types of penetration testing apply to different scenarios, and not every organisation will use every type of pen testing, whereas others may need them all. It’s important that you think carefully about what security testing you want to do and the requirements for your organisation.
Just like there are various types of pen tests, there are also different strategies for effective pen testing. These can include anything from red teaming to black, white, and grey box testing. Here, we’ll look at these strategies in more detail.
A typical standard pen testing operation will generally look at where a hacker might target you, how they would attack, how good your defences are, and how big the breach could be. During these simulated attacks, the goal is to identify flaws in your security and let you view your network, application, device, and physical security through the eyes of a hacker.
Pro tip: In a sense, you can consider standard pen testing as basic pen testing; although it lets you find vulnerabilities, you can improve on it. And this is where red teaming comes in.
Instead of going through your various systems methodically, red teaming focuses on stealthy, multi-faceted, controlled attacks. These pen testing operations have narrower objectives than a standard pen testing approach and they take a simultaneous approach to testing your security vulnerabilities.
For instance, a red teaming pen test can launch social engineering and network services attacks at the same time, while avoiding detection. Their security assessment gives you a deeper understanding of the realistic level of risk and vulnerabilities your organisation faces. Understandably, this approach involves more people, resources, and time to implement — as well as expertise.
The key here is that you don’t choose one or the other, but that you do both for the best results. This is simply because standard penetration testing will give you a broader view of your security vulnerabilities and how to solve them, while red teaming gives you a deeper understanding with more actionable insights.
Standard pen testing can also differ in its approach, and in the weaknesses it wants to exploit. Ultimately, the level of information provided to the pen tester will determine the approach they will take.
The different approaches to pen testing include:
Building an in-house pen testing team can be a good option long-term. However, it doesn’t always make sense to invest significant resources into cyber security assets that you will only use sporadically. Only businesses with regular and ongoing pen testing requirements really benefit from in-house expertise.
In addition to helping you overcome the very real cyber security skills shortage, partnering with a penetration testing security provider can deliver access to more resources at lower cost — helping you avoid investing in costly infrastructure that you don’t actually need. Critical benefits to outsourcing pen testing include:
The way to outsource your penetration testing is to leverage creative partnerships with managed service providers. They can deliver a more efficient way to scale, and better access to skills on-demand. This means they reduce the number of people you need to hire full-time and simplify your hiring process for in-house security teams, while still helping you rise to meet your short and long-term cyber security challenges.
By using a managed service, you’ll effectively:
In simple terms, by partnering with a managed service provider or cyber security experts, you can leave the security up to them and focus on your real core competencies — offering excellent customer services or delivering your product.
The benefits you get by partnering with a managed service provider are difficult to ignore, especially when it comes to your information and data security.
Six Degrees delivers end-to-end managed cyber security services that can protect your business from the threats that exist from malicious and accidental data breaches. Our range of security services protect your business assets whenever they’re vulnerable or exposed to the threat of an attack.
Our pen testing services also combine the benefits of manual pen testing with the continual protection of automated systems, and we have some of the most revered pen testers in the industry to ensure that your business maintains a robust security posture. Get in touch if you want help exploring managed services for Pen Testing.
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