Corporate network security breaches can be costly to remediate and mostly result from vulnerabilities that could have been fixed for a low cost. One of the most effective ways to identify vulnerabilities is to hire a penetration testing company to conduct a risk assessment. Companies look forward to addressing the vulnerabilities and protection gaps by taking the right steps. Pen tests are one of the most successful testing strategies that quickly reveal gaps that can lead to exposing weaknesses in systems and applications. POS attacks like BlackPOS, Chewbacca, Backoff, etc. on multiple networks in a retail business is one of the examples of such exposes.
Penetration testing is a testing technique to evaluate the security of an information system by simulating an attack from a malicious source. It is an authorized test to evaluate how weak a firm’s cyber security is and what it can do to strengthen it. Not many businesses are in favor of conducting pen tests, due to security budget issues. It is time for organizations to reconsider the security of their cyber stature by implementing a pen test strategy.
Following are a few reasons why penetration testing is important to avoid data breaches:
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Security Tools or Penetration Testers?
Each organization has its own cyber security tools including anti-virus software, encryption codes and vulnerability scanning. But it is not possible to address live attacks with these tools. A penetration testing company offers the services of penetration testers, who are trained to think like black-hat hackers and use open-source tools like Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard(PCI DSS), Information Systems Security Assessment Framework (ISSAF), etc. as their basic road map.
Exposes Multiple Vulnerabilities as a Single Target
Penetration testers have skills and experience to simulate a real-life cyber attack. They use various methodologies to perform advanced attacks, they can identify Structured Query Language (SQL) injections, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and other vulnerabilities in the organization’s web applications and infrastructure. Typically, a single attack will not show the pen testers any vulnerabilities in an organization’s cyber security. But, when they set a single target and gets susceptible to various simultaneous attacks, it can lead to breaching an organization’s security and thus exposes a vulnerability.
Following a New Approach
Testers often set a certain pattern of performing tasks on a daily basis. It is the same case with ethical hackers that are employed in an organization. This is not the case with pen testers working for a penetration testing company.
A penetration tester is trained and experienced in identifying threats through a different and new approach, and also determines the probability of an attack on an organization’s information systems. Pen testers also ensure that the organization is operating with an acceptable limit of IT risks and are to do so in compliance with the industry regulations and standards. Thus, they can provide solutions to avoid data breaches to an organization’s cyber security system.
Author Bio:
Ray Parker is an entrepreneur and tech enthusiast who loves to incorporate new technologies to get more efficient outcomes. When he’s not marketing his latest venture, he keeps himself busy in writing technical articles to educate peers and professionals.
