Why penetration testing is important?
As we all know that the dependence upon IT infrastructure is getting more and more with each passing day. Security concerns related to IT adoption is also making more voices. Mainly because today’s business is more dependent on IT then ever, also news related to security breaches becomes the norms of the day. One of the best way to secure your IT that includes your IT infrastructure and application (like, web, mobile and desktop) is to get aware and rectify your weaknesses before the attackers/hackers. Vulnerability assessment / Penetration testing is just the way to achieve this goal.
Difference between Vulnerability Assessment And Penetration Testing
Industry uses the term VAPT that represent by combining both Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing but in reality but are little different.
What is vulnerability assessment?
Vulnerability Assessment (VA) is the process of defining, identifying, classifying and prioritizing vulnerabilities in IT infracture (like computer systems and network infrastructures) and applications. This will be helpful for the organization to understand the threats to its environment and to calculate risk and focus on solving bigger problems first and then focuses on smaller issues which has lower risk. Vulnerability Assessment does not include actual exploitation of vulnerability (which the hacker can do if he found that vulnerability) so it will reduces the harm that can affect the existing environment. You can find more details about vulnerability assessment here.
What is penetration test?
Penetration Testing (PT) also called Pen test or ethical hacking is a practice of authorized testing or authorized simulated attack on the IT infrastructure or application (web, mobile, desktop). The main purpose of this attack is to evaluate the security of the systems and sometimes check for the readiness of the response team. In comparison with Vulnerability Assessment, penetration testing not only find security vulnerability but also try to exploit those vulnerability. Penetration testing provide more realistic and comprehensive view of the security posture of the company. There are five main steps in performing penetration test. More details about the steps can be found here.
Why penetration testing is necessary?
Cyber threats landscape is evolving with the rapid pace unprecedented before. Companies are not only under pressure from stakeholders and regulations to protect themselves from data breaches, DDos, ransomware and other cyber security threats but also users are demanding more and more features.
With time latest and supposedly greatest tools and technologies are introduced in the market but penetration tests remain one of the most popular and critical tools to strengthen your security defenses. Penetration testing can be required in so many conditions following are few occasions when it is commonly practiced.
To uncover critical vulnerabilities in your environment
Penetration testing exposes your weaknesses before real hackers do. It reveals whether an organization is potentially vulnerable to cyber attacks and provides recommendations on how to strengthen your security defenses.
In other words, a penetration test will help you understand the extent your organization’s vulnerabilities can potentially be exploited by hackers.
To prioritize and handle risks based on their exploitability and impact
Penetration testing can reveal which areas of security you need to invest in. It will list weaknesses in order of :
i. How easily they can be exploited
ii. Impact on the systems in case of exploitation
This can be used to calculate risk and prioritized for risk treatment.
Meet compliance with industry standards and regulations
If your organization needs to comply with certain industry standards and regulations, a regularly conducted penetration test is your first step towards achieving compliance.
Most of the information security standards are risk based and to calculate risk you need to know your vulnerability and its impact. Penetration testing will help you discover vulnerability.
Apart from that some compliance frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST, FISMA, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires annual as well as ongoing penetration testing (in case of system changes).
Simulation of a Real Attack Scenario
If you never simulate a cyber-attack, how will you know that your system will stand up in case of real attack? In reality it is almost impossible that systems are infallible, and a consistent hacker can find new ways to break down defenses.
Penetration testing simulates exactly what would happen in a real, skilled security attack on your system. There is simply no substitute for penetration testing. And it is always better to have ethical hacker defeat your defenses than a malicious hacker.
Provides an outsider point of view on your security
Although penetration testing can be performed by you local employee but sometimes you need an external ethical hacker to conduct penetration testing. This will provide you an outsider perspective on your security defences. Also the person in charge of cybersecurity defences can make mistakes just like anyone else, so it is important to have a third party penetration test to get an alternate perspective on your system.
Save you money in long run
Although it might sound illogical, but spending money on penetration testing will actually save your business a significant amount of money. It is worth noting that penetration testing can save you money in the long run. Apart from the threat of fines from governing bodies if you fail to protect customer data, you can also suffer from a loss of trust in your customers after a breach has occurred. Penetration testing will help you fix potential problems that will save you from potential huge expenses of a future breach.
Keep executive management informed about your organization’s risk level
Executive management and the board of the directors want to be informed about how well protected their organization really is against cyber attacks. Executive summary and/or findings overview in penetration testing report can provide them with valuable insights about their organization’s security posture in easy-to-understand, non-technical terms.
Evidence on the effectiveness of security control
Penetration testing can test an organization’s ability to detect intrusions and breaches. It can provide evidence about the effectiveness of the security controls that are in place and hence justifies continued or additional investment in security personnel and technology.
How often should you conduct penetration test?
How often a company should conduct penetration testing depends on multiple factors, such as:
- Regulations, laws and compliance. Depending on the industry, various laws and regulations might require organizations to perform penetration testing regularly for example ISO 27001, NIST, FISMA, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires annual as well as ongoing penetration testing (in case of system changes)
- Company size. Larger organizations with a greater online presence have more attack vectors and might be a great targets for attackers. That is why they may require more frequent penetration test.
- Budget. Penetration tests can be time consuming and expensive, so an organization with a smaller budget might restrict penetration testing to once a year.
- Infrastructure: Companies with 100 percent cloud environment might not be allowed to test the cloud provider’s infrastructure or required special permissions. Cloud provider might have restriction on the frequency of conducting penetration test or the provider may already conduct pen tests internally.
What are the drawbacks of penetration test?
Penetration tester should be extremely careful when conducting a test. Although penetration test have lots of benefits but sometimes it has some drawbacks as will such as:
- Outages to critical services if the penetration test is poorly designed or executed, which can end up causing more damage to the company in general.
- Difficulty of conducting penetration tests on legacy systems, which are often vital to businesses.
