Table of Contents
- What Is Penetration Testing?
- What Are the Benefits of Pentesting?
- Types of Penetration Testing
- Phases of Penetration Testing
What Is Penetration Testing?
“Pentesting”, also called penetration testing, is a type of ethical hacking involving looking for different weaknesses in an application or an organization’s infrastructure. This pentesting process helps to find and exploit the system’s weaknesses, which can be caused by misconfigurations, poorly designed architecture, insecure code and so on.
Pentesting helps find vulnerabilities and the process produces actionable reports explaining each vulnerability (including how to take advantage of it and how to fix it). Each identified vulnerability is given a rating, which organizations use to plan how to fix it.
Usually, a pentest is a simulated attack that’s done ethically to test how well security controls work in a certain environment and point out any possible weaknesses. During this pentesting process, different manual and automated methods are used to simulate an attack on a company’s information security. The ethical hacking process could be run from a company’s infrastructure or by employees of the same company.
Businesses that store and access private and sensitive data, like banks, financial institutions, healthcare providers, etc., should use this testing to protect themselves from any possible gaps. Businesses which use pentesting get many benefits from this testing method:
What Are the Benefits of Pentesting?
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- Helps detect vulnerabilities that may otherwise stay unidentified
- Identifies new hazards posed by potential attackers and invaders
- Identifies vulnerabilities in systems and online applications in real-time
- Helps evaluate the efficacy of web application firewalls
- Helps evaluate the organization’s cyber defense capacity
- Helps identify and display real-time threats and vulnerabilities
- Helps locate potential vulnerabilities inside the system infrastructure network or inside an application
Types of Penetration Testing
Network penetration testing
In this type of testing, the penetration tester looks at the organization’s network and tries to find flaws in how it was designed, works, or was set up. The tester looks at different parts of the organization like computers, modems and remote access devices, so as to find any possible vulnerabilities.
Physical penetration testing
With this method of physical penetration testing, real-world threats are acted out. The pentester pretends to be a cyberattacker and tries to get through the physical security barrier. This test is done to see if physical controls like security cameras, lockers, barriers, sensors, etc., have any weaknesses.
Web application penetration testing
Web penetration testing looks for security problems which can happen because of bad design or code. It also looks for potential security holes in websites and web apps. This testing is most important for eCommerce sites which deal with online transactions like online shopping sites, banking apps and other eCommerce sites.
Wireless network penetration testing
This type of pentesting checks the connection between all devices connected to the organization’s Wi-Fi such as laptops, computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. This type of pentesting is done to stop leaks which could happen when one device shares data with another device over a Wi-Fi network.
Phases of Penetration Testing
- Pre-engagement activities
- Reconnaissance phase
- Threat modeling and locating weaknesses
- Exploitation phase and post-exploitation
- Reports that cover everything
- Re-testing phase
CyberHunter Solutions has highly skilled pentesters who ensure you get the best pentesting services and help you find any possible weaknesses in your IT infrastructure, web apps and systems.
Get in touch with our pentesting experts right away. Call us at (833) 292-4868 or visit CyberHunter online today.
