Social engineering is the art of using people’s good intentions against them to obtain information about networks or the company at large to access information that should not be available to outsiders. This is not related to technology but the readiness of your entire staff to deal with malicious hacking attempts.
Social engineering attacks come in a variety of forms, but the most common are phishing, vishing, smishing, impersonation, dumpster diving, USB drops, and tailgating.
Users are commonly referred to as the “weakest link” when it comes to security but yet users still have more than the necessary permissions to perform their jobs. So it would only make sense to pen tests those users. These pen tests can show who within a company is susceptible to the attacks previously discussed and more.
Acting as an in-depth test of the network, the network penetration test will allow businesses to better understand their network baseline, to test their network and system security controls, prevent attacks and breaches, and ensure network security in the future.
There are numerous benefits to performing network penetration tests on your systems including:
Most of the time, the network’s baseline is identified through the use of scanning tools like port scanners, network scanners, and vulnerability scanners. Understanding a network’s baseline allows the business owner to understand what security controls are working, identify existing vulnerabilities, and provide them additional information about their network.
Unlike a vulnerability assessment, a network penetration test will put your security controls to the ultimate test. A network penetration test’s goal is to breach your network and exploit those vulnerabilities to understand the areas that need improvement.
When a successful penetration test is performed, the results assist a business owner in designing or adjusting their risk analysis and mitigation strategies.
This helps the business prevent future breaches because the network penetration test simulates a real-world attacker attempting to break into your systems.
Every single incident of compromised customer data can be costly in terms of both negatively affecting sales and tarnishing an organization’s public image. With customer retention costs higher than ever, no one wants to lose the loyal users that they’ve worked hard to earn, and data breaches are likely to turn off new clients. Penetration testing helps you avoid data incidents that put your organization’s reputation and trustworthiness at stake.
Penetration testing should be performed on a regular basis to ensure more consistent IT and network security management. In addition to regularly scheduled analysis and assessments required by regulatory mandates, tests should also be run whenever:
Your organization will grow and change over time. Factors such as a change in staff members, business lines, processes, and technology are good reasons to conduct a penetration test. We advise you to perform penetration tests of your business regularly to ensure that your systems are up to date and your employees have been properly trained
Cybersecurity is ever-evolving because cybercriminals are always innovating new ways to intrude networks and exploit vulnerabilities. Hence, it is important to perform penetration testing whenever there is a major change in the environment.
Often, regulatory bodies like PCI DSS and HIPAA encourage penetration testing to comply with regulations.
