Last week we looked at what and whys of penetration testing. In the second blog of our series, we explore why you should use penetration testing (referred to hereafter as pen testing) as part of your security strategy.
According to studies, a cyber-attack happens on average every 39 seconds. This means there could be hackers and/or cyber criminals right now with plenty of time in their hands, with the right tools who are attempting to break into your systems.
If you are not aware where your weak spots are, or that you even have security vulnerabilities, then your sensitive data could be easily exploited and exposed by hackers.
Trust us, unless you are trained and experienced in hacking and cybercrime, you cannot know what a threat is and what a threat isn’t.
Pen testing by an experienced tester helps to provide a solution by assisting you to assess whether the security measures, configurations and the tools you have in place are fit for purpose to withstand or detect attacks.
Generally, pen testing works by identifying your system’s vulnerabilities and examining the real-world effectiveness of your existing security controls under a skilled hacker.
The findings of the test should be documented to strengthen your security measures and provide actionable recommendations which, if applied, will substantially reduce the chance of an attacker breaking in.
Whilst automated testing can help you to identify cybersecurity issues, a true pen test dives deeper, looking into your security vulnerabilities to see if a manual attack is possible.
With proper manual and regular automated testing, you can determine software, infrastructure, physical weaknesses, and even staff weaknesses, to help develop a strong security culture for your business.
At the end of the day, what you are looking to achieve is that you are protected from the majority of unsophisticated cyber-attacks and that it is hard enough to breach your systems that the hackers move onto an easier target.
Please get in touch to chat about any aspect as your cyber security.
