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Cybersecurity

How Does Penetration Testing Work?

By June 1, 2020July 19th, 2024No Comments
How Does Penetration Testing Work? | Reverus

Your business has set up a secure network, but now it needs to be tested. You can’t expect it to work the first time around correctly, right? This is where a penetration test comes in. You rely on the expert skills of a trained professional, such as Reverus, to come in and use a variety of techniques and tools to find potential problems and give you an overall vulnerability assessment.

What is Penetration Testing?

You may have seen the term penetration testing before, or maybe you’ve searched “what is a pen test” in the past. Either way, a penetration test, also known as a pen test, is a method of performing security testing on a network system for an organization. This is done through a variety of different stress tests to determine security vulnerabilities and how they can best be addressed. 

Because a penetration test is identifying vulnerabilities inside a network, it’s different from a vulnerability assessment. These terms are often confused, but a vulnerability assessment is the evaluation of a network system and services, while a pen test is performing legal exploits on a network to find security issues. Pen testing is essentially an in-depth, hands-on approach to problem mitigation, while vulnerability assessments are scans, sweeps, and generally wide-sweeping procedures for finding security flaws. Each is useful, but a pen test is the penultimate form of testing your defenses against the real world.

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Network Penetration Testing

Identifying security concerns early on will prevent issues from cropping up in the future. A penetration test is a simulation of the process a hacker would take to launch an attack on a business network, attached devices, network applications, or a business website. Through this test, you can find flaws and points of interest that can be patched up to prevent an actual attack from happening. A pen test checks your security posture, overall information security, application security, and more from a security professional standpoint.

You may have noticed that someone will be simulating an attack on your business and start getting wet feet. After all, if they’re coming in and simulating it, what’s to stop them from actually hacking you? Although a pen test simulates different ways that a hacker would attack your business, the difference is that a pen test is performed without malicious intent. You have full control over the extent to which they are allowed to test and can observe each of the steps as they carry out the cyber attack to see where your security risks lie and if they are going too far or not far enough. It’s technically the only form of ethical hacking in a professional space. If the penetration test isn’t planned correctly or lacking in components, then it could cause issues for your business. If the pen tester doesn’t have all the authorization or oversight needed to get the job done correctly, your business continuity could take a hit.

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Steps of Testing

There are a few stages to the pen testing process that can be broken down into manageable chunks.

  • Network Interface: Network professionals harvest information from network interfaces, user interfaces, and more. If the interface isn’t designed correctly, the hacker can skim data off the top quickly.
  • Errors: Error and alert boxes may give away too much information, so a quick test rundown of different error popups can help lower the amount of vital information being given away. 
  • Disaster Scenario: Identifying a potential massive issue is key to ongoing security. This test will look at your most important, potentially exposed networks and the various ways that a hack could occur, as well as the fallout if your security fails in these areas. If your security is well maintained, then there shouldn’t be an issue.

Why Hire A Penetration Tester?

Pen testing prevents data breaches, enhances application security, and provides you a controlled security test through a professional medium. You’re working with a partner that wants your security to succeed. They help you find compliance issues, security gaps, and maintenance problems along the way.

When you need a professional security company to help give you a reliable pen test, you need Reverus. We offer a variety of IT security solutions to help your business reach its full potential. From security awareness training to cybersecurity and beyond, Reverus is always here to help when you need it most.