Penetration testing simply establishes benchmarks for your business to expose gaps and/or weaknesses in your IT infrastructure. Performed by an ethical hacker, pen tests are used by businesses to achieve compliance, otherwise meet regulatory requirements, or just to ensure they have a heightened security framework. After the process is complete, your business will receive a grade as well as an actionable list of items your IT engineering team must address to secure your infrastructure. From this point on, IT teams must abide by tighter cyber hygiene controls and keep security top-of-mind.
If you want to ensure that your IT environment and data are truly as secure as possible, implementing advanced cybersecurity solutions and services and maintaining a comprehensive IT security strategy is only part of the process. It's important to make sure that the protections you've put in place actually work with regular pen testing.
Many cyber liability insurance providers today won’t cover businesses that don’t conduct regular penetration testing, in addition to following other best practices for optimal IT security.
However, searching for the right pen test provider can make your head spin, considering how rapidly the marketplace evolves and how quickly new variations emerge. As you’ll see below, there are all sorts of different pen test types, and the prices can vary drastically depending on your requirements. You don’t want to end up overspending for more than you need, as some of the businesses we’ve engaged with did before turning to us for guidance.
Our trusted technology advisors can help you make sense of the chaos and find best-in-class providers of pen testing and other cybersecurity services. Keep reading to learn more about how pen testing works and our advisory services.
How Pen Testing Works
What is pen testing? It essentially involves a simulated cyberattack targeting a certain aspect of your IT environment to assess your security posture. The process will give you an idea of how effective your cybersecurity measures are in practice and whether you currently have weak points that a hacker could potentially exploit. Typically, due to the sophisticated hacking skills necessary, you'll need to work with a third-party provider to perform this procedure for your organization.
Although pen testing is recommended for organizations in any field that want to achieve the highest possible level of security, this security assessment is required for compliance with certain regulations, such as SOC 2, HIPAA and PCI DSS. That means it's a must in industries like healthcare and finance. FINRA and SEC have recommended tighter controls as well as performing penetration testing for trading firms.
Pen Test Types
Providers can perform various types of tests to evaluate possible weaknesses in specific facets of your IT environment. The different varieties of pen testing can include the following:
- Internal
- External
- On-site physical
- Application (e.g., if you have your own proprietary code, as is the case for many accounting firms and trading firms)
- Wi-Fi
- Manual (in-depth and performed by security pros)
- Automated (faster and performed by software)
- Pentest as a Service (PTaaS), a combination of manual and automated testing
Following testing, you will receive a report/"call to action" document detailing any weaknesses that were successfully exploited during the simulated attack.
Find Your Ideal Pen Test Provider
Our advisors have researched and pre-vetted over 20 of the best pent test providers in the market. Drawing on our experience as a former managed security service provider and utilizing a tool that generates detailed comparison matrices, we can almost instantly narrow your options down to the top 3 that address your unique needs.
Our cybersecurity engineers will review the matrix with you and work with you to pinpoint your ideal pen testing provider. We typically save our clients dozens of hours they’d otherwise spend attempting to navigate the complex marketplace on their own. Let us do the heavy lifting for you.
Call 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com for a free evaluation.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Testing
These recommendations will help you business maximize the return on your investment.
- Test regularly (at least once per year or whenever your IT environment or security strategy changes) if you're not already required to do so for compliance with industry regulations. Pen tests can be followed by monthly or quarterly vulnerability scans.
- Following the simulated attack, address any issues identified and then re-test after 45 to 90 days to ensure everything was fixed. Do not implement new technologies during this time. Simply resolve the issues that were identified and try not to re-test past 90 days.
- To minimize your risk level after pen testing, maintain tight security controls, conduct ongoing vulnerability scans, and keep your cybersecurity road map up-to-date.
Jumpstart your search for the best security solutions today with a free assessment.