Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is a cybersecurity best practice that helps ensure IT environments are properly secured and vulnerabilities are appropriately patched. A penetration test seeks to determine whether and how a malicious user can gain unauthorized access to information assets.

Is your organization safe from cyberattacks?

Does your organization have a penetration testing team that can test your security teams? Enclova can help protect your organization with a comprehensive posture assessment that includes local penetration testing with a highly qualified team of experts. Our consultants are ready to help with specific industry-based customized penetration testing services, for example healthcare penetration testing service.

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing, or pen-test, is a security evaluation of an IT infrastructure by safely trying to exploit vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities may exist in operating systems, services and application flaws, improper configurations or risky end-user behavior. Such assessments are also useful in validating the efficacy of defensive mechanisms, as well as, end-user adherence to security policies.

Penetration tests are typically performed using manual or automated technologies to systematically compromise servers, endpoints, web applications, wireless networks, network devices, mobile devices and other potential points of exposure. Once vulnerabilities have been successfully exploited on a particular system, testers may attempt to use the compromised system to launch subsequent exploits at other internal resources – specifically by trying to incrementally achieve higher levels of security clearance and deeper access to electronic assets and information via privilege escalation.

What is the Result of a Penetration Test?

After completing a penetration test, ethical hacker shares information about any security vulnerabilities successfully exploited through penetration testing is presented to IT and network system managers to help those professionals make strategic conclusions and prioritize related remediation efforts. The risks involved with cyber breach can be greatly reduced by performing a penetration test and fixing any gaps before they cause real harm.

Who needs a Penetration Test?

Penetration tests are primarily done against organizations that are required by law or accreditation agency such as PCI (Payment Card Industry) or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) to receive a penetration test as an added measure for security purposes. Organizations who are required by law or who wish to be within certain compliance must adhere to their requirements to maintain this certification. There are many reasons an organization may wish to do this, such as improving their clients’ trust in their security policies, meeting a specific client’s needs and expectations for security, and to be able to proudly display their meeting this certification as a business sales tactic.

What Are The Different Types of Penetration Testing?

The kind of penetration testing we would perform on your systems largely depends on the what you are hoping to achieve with the test. The different types of penetration tests include web application, network services, social engineering, wireless, etc. Broadly, the types of penetration testing can be classified into Internal and External Penetration Testing.

Internal Penetration Testing

An internal penetration test involves gaining access to sensitive information. Specifically, it is a process where the network is penetrated from within the organization’s systems and firewalls.

External Penetration Testing

An external penetration test represents beginning the process from outside the organization’s firewall. This effort is a way to strengthen defenses against external cyber attackers.

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The Five Phases of the Penetration Testing

Planning and Reconnaissance

In this phase, the tester gathers as much information about the target system as possible. This includes information about the network topology, operating systems and applications, user accounts, and other relevant information. The goal is to gather as much data as possible so that the tester can plan an effective attack strategy.

Scanning

Once all the relevant data has been gathered in the reconnaissance phase, it’s time to move on to scanning. In this phase, the tester uses various tools to identify open ports and check network traffic on the target system. Since open ports are potential entry points for attackers, the goal of this phase is to find as many as possible so that the tester can take advantage of them in the next phase.

Vulnerability Assessment

The third phase of the penetration testing process is vulnerability assessment. The tester scans all the data gathered in the reconnaissance and scanning phases to identify potential vulnerabilities and determine whether they can be exploited.

Explotation

Once a vulnerability has been identified, it’s time for exploitation. The tester attempts to exploit the vulnerability and access the target system.

Reporting

Once the exploitation phase is complete, the tester prepares a report documenting all of the penetration test’s findings. This report can be used to fix any vulnerabilities found in the system and improve the organization’s security posture.