What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing, also referred to as “pen testing” or “pen tests”, are security tests that mimic how hackers would attack a company’s systems, applications or network to locate security vulnerabilities and flaws. Penetration testing highlights the cyber threats your business may face and offer recommendations for strengthening your business’s cyber security.
What are the benefits of Penetration Testing?
There are many benefits to penetration testing to ensure your business is secure and not under threat from a cyber-attack.
Reveal vulnerabilities
Existing weaknesses in your system, network infrastructure, application configurations or even the habits of your staff could lead to malicious infiltration or data breaches. Penetration testing shows the hardware and software improvements you should consider and recommendations that would improve the overall security of your business.
Test your cyber defence capabilities
You should be able to detect and block attackers, whether they are malicious or experts testing your defence capabilities. Penetration testing shows you how to improve your cyber defence capabilities.
Ensure business continuity
To ensure your business operations are up and running constantly, you need access to resources, 24/7 communications and network availability. Each cyber attack will have a harmful impact on your business. Penetration tests reveal potential threats to your company and ensure your operations don’t suffer from unexpected downtime or loss of accessibility.
Follow regulations and certifications
Some legal and industry compliance requirements may dictate a certain level of penetration testing. For example, ISO 27001 requires all system owners and managers to conduct regular security reviews and penetration tests.
Maintain trust
A data breach or cyber attack negatively affects your customers, partners and suppliers’ confidence in your company. However, showing that you conduct systematic, strict penetration tests will instil confidence in your company and reassure your stakeholders.
When should you conduct Penetration Testing?
Regular penetration testing is often required by compliance and regulatory standards. However, you should also conduct thorough penetration tests if:
- There are app or infrastructure upgrades
- There are updates to the network architecture
- Your company expands via acquisitions or mergers
- Third-party or cloud server environments are used
- After applying patches to the system to fix security holes
We have teamed up with an industry leader in penetration testing who provides specialist security audits for VoIP and IoT devices. As part of their service, you can benefit from:
- Web application penetration testing
- Wireless penetration testing
- Phishing simulation test
- Mobile application penetration testing
- External/internal infrastructure penetration testing
- Build and configuration review
Are you interested in finding out more about Penetration Testing?
Our specialist partner is an expert in cyber defence and information technology and is recognised as an industry leader in penetration testing in the UK. They’ll conduct a thorough security audit, recommend improvements, implement additional safeguards and close any vulnerabilities they find.
If you are interested in penetration testing for your business, please contact us today by completing the short form on this page or calling us on 0800 229 4020. We’ll pass your details over to our specialist partners, who will be in contact shortly.