Penetration testing is the process of finding vulnerabilities, flaws, malicious content, risks, etc.
During this process, the organization’s IT infrastructure is strengthened.
At the same time, a penetration test helps determine if an IT system is vulnerable to a cyberattack by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of any IT infrastructure at a particular point in time. The process of penetration testing (aka pentest) requires careful planning.
According to the requirements of Russian legislation, a penetration tester must obtain permission from the audited organization, as well as his management, and only after that start working within the established boundaries.
What is the difference between vulnerability assessment and penetration testing?
Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing is a method of protecting an organization from external and internal threats by identifying them before attackers use them. Testers should imitate the actions of criminals and try to hack the infrastructure, systems, thus revealing weaknesses.
We offers a wide range of security assessment services for network infrastructure, web applications and mobile applications that allow you to detect and assess security vulnerabilities.
What are the different types of penetration testing?
The kind of penetration testing we’ll be doing on your systems depends a lot on what you’re hoping to achieve with the test. The different types of penetration testing include testing of web applications, network services, social engineering, wireless networks, etc. In general, the types of penetration testing can be divided into internal and external penetration testing.
- Internal penetration testing. Involves gaining access to confidential information. Specifically, it is the process by which a network is penetrated from within an organization’s systems and firewalls. Actually from the territory of the customer company
- External penetration testing. Represents the start of a process from outside the organization. This method fully simulates the action of real attackers.
Other types of penetration testing include:
- Read Team (episodic control of the customer)
- Blue Team (own group of hackers that fights off attacks from within the organization)
- Cloud Penetration Testing
- Mobile Penetration Testing
- Web Application Testing
- IoT penetration testing
- social engineering
How often should penetration testing be done?
There are many factors that go into determining how often and when to test for your organization. Below
- Changes in the structure of the organization
- Changes n the environment
- Regulatory Changes
Your organization will grow and change over time. Factors such as changing staff, lines of business, processes, and technology are good reasons to conduct a penetration test. We advise you to regul arly conduct penetration tests on your business to ensure that your systems are up to date and that your employees have been properly trained.
Cybersecurity is constantly evolving as cybercriminals are constantly inventing new ways to infiltrate networks and exploit vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is important to conduct penetration testing whenever major changes occur in the environment.
Often, regulators such as PCI DSS and HIPAA encourage penetration testing in order to comply with regulatory requirements.
How much does penetration testing cost?
Like other cybersecurity services, the cost of a penetration test varies depending on:
- Penetration tester qualifications required to perform the job.
- The size and complexity of the IT landscape and network devices.
- The type of methodology used, since different methodologies require different sets of methods and tools.
- Whether testing is done remotely or on site.
At the same time, a penetration test cannot cost less than a few thousand dollars. Usually the price of pentest in Russia varies from 1 to 5 million rubles.