What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration Testing, otherwise known as “pentesting” or ethical hacking, is the beating heart of all good cybersecurity practice within an enterprise business. Penetration testing ethically simulates attacks on a network or cyber system to identify weak points and understand how hackers may approach breaching the interface, without the security risk of these vulnerabilities being exploited.
Such a test utilises the same approaches that a malicious hacker or attacker would use while attempting to exploit an enterprise's systems, though instead of causing harm provides clients with security education and a detailed report outlining any vulnerabilities. By providing valuable insights, remediations can be made to improve security measures.
Pentesting can help mitigate the risk of a cyber breach through proactivity- by identifying the risks first, remediations can be made before hackers even have the chance to infiltrate.
But why is penetration testing important for enterprise businesses when it comes to mitigating cyber threats?
Prevent Data Breaches
In a cyber attack, security flaws are targeted to gain access to sensitive data belonging to both customers and employees alike. Attackers exploit a businesses' weakened security posture to gain access to personal and sensitive information.
In the instance a data breach occurs, businesses risk not only the exposure or theft of critical data, but also operational disruptions, enterprise reputation damages, and, in certain instances, legal action.
Data breaches are not a risk worth taking. Security audits as well as penetration testing can aid significantly in preventing this, allowing for security patches to be made and any weaknesses to be remediated effectively.
Penetration testing tools prevent the potentiality of cyber attacks and allow teams to fix security holes before any potential threats can be actualised, providing valuable insights and peace of mind for both company and customer data.
Explore the timeline of DORA implementation, outlining key phases and milestones for successful deployment.
Meet Regulatory Compliance
Security systems within an enterprise business are held to a certain degree of expectation, which, in order to meet regulatory compliance, must be honoured.
Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA)
Compliance expectations will differ based on the industry- the financial technology sector, or example, must be conscious of the upcoming introduction of the EU's Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA), which will enforce a regulatory framework in the financial sector from January 2025. DORA prompts businesses within the financial sector to implement effective incident reporting through enforceable response mechanisms.
Financial entities must, in order to comply, swiftly detect and respond to incidents. By doing so, they can both mitigate potential harm and minimise operational disruption.
ISO 27001
ISO 27001 is an international standard for information security. While ISO 27001 is a voluntary standard, it is highly recommended that the framework is met to enforce security defences and strengthen an enterprise's IT system through the regular maintenance and monitoring of their information security management system.
Regular security testing, including penetration testing work, minimises the risk of a successful breach by identifying such vulnerabilities in a controlled environment, allowing an enterprise's cyber security team to remediate these security holes before they are exploited.
SOC 2 Type 2
SOC Type 2 is another voluntary compliance certification and auditing framework. This certification ensures that companies handle customers’ sensitive data correctly that is stored in the cloud. Most companies that store or transmit sensitive data should consider SOC 2 compliance.
A penetration tester can reveal vulnerabilities in an enterprise's infrastructure that- in the instance that a cyber breach occurs- could be exploited by malicious hackers.
PCI-DSS
PCI-DSS enforces the protection of any credit or debit card payments, and is a globally acknowledged information security framework. PCI-DSS security standards, through rigorous regulatory practices, help to detect physical and network-based attacks, therefore allowing businesses to prevent these incidents from occurring. PCI-DSS segmentation includes regular manual pentesting to ensure business network segments are separated from the cardholder data environment (CDE).
Automated scanning tools simply do not reach the depth and intricacy required of PCI-DSS requirements- it takes a team of security professionals to truly remain one step ahead of a malicious hacker.
These compliance acts often encapsulate both internal testing and external testing, and companies failing to meet expectations risk not only potential security vulnerabilities, but loss of business and customer confidence.
Businesses should aspire to conduct penetration tests regularly to strengthen network infrastructure and minimise the risk of exploited vulnerabilities.
Identify Security Vulnerabilities
The overall intention of a penetration test is to identify security vulnerabilities. By maintaining access to sensitive data and internal information in a controlled and ethical environment, penetration testers can provide comprehensive security reviews to enable businesses to rectify any issues flagged (without the risk of them being exploited).
Depending on the intricacies of the business structure, there are different types of penetration tests that can be conducted.
Conclusion
Conducting penetration tests prevents the risk of exploits of an enterprise's computer system or infrastructure.
Through frequent penetration testing, you can assure strong security defences for your enterprise. Attackers are relentlessly seeking to exploit vulnerabilities, and even something as simple as a human error can be enough to cause catastrophic levels of exploitation if left in the wrong hands.
A penetration test cost is nothing compared to the potential remediation costs required to undo damage enacted by malicious hackers.
Be proactive, not reactive, in positive cybersecurity practices and implement a regular testing process into your security controls to protect sensitive data and networks from cyber attacks.
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