Penetration Testing

Why Do You Need a Penetration Testing?

While most organizations implement security procedures, auditing, and vulnerability assessments, there is only one way to verify whether the measures actually work – Penetration tests or Pen tests. Only they can give you an honest answer to the questions: "Are my digital assets really cyber secure?" and "What else should I urgently implement for protection against hackers?"

A licensed penetration tester is a specialist able to think and act like an attacker. Imitating different types of cybercriminal attacks, they use real-life scenarios to test your line of defence. Pentest report brings you the clear truth about the state and reliability of your cyber defence. You will obtain precise information about system weak points and the steps needed to strengthen them. You can act on this information promptly to remain one step ahead of any cybercriminals trying to exploit these vulnerabilities. Penetration testing services are the most precise and reliable tool to get an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the protection of your digital assets.

What Kind of Penetration Testing Do You Need?

There are three main kinds of security penetration testing: Black Box, White Box and Grey Box. All of them have their own benefits and drawbacks.

Black Box

In a Black Box pen test, the tester has no information about the target company's IT infrastructure. Instead, they imitate the behaviour of a cybercriminal and attempt to breach your defences. In most cases, your IT and security departments are not informed about the test to simulate the suddenness of a real-world attack. Hence, Black Box network pentesting is the most detailed and close-to-reality assessment of your security systems. It is also the most expensive and time-consuming.

Grey Box

In a Grey Box test, the licensed penetration tester has the knowledge and access levels of an internal system user. They may study the architecture and design documentation and use an internal account to conduct the test. Grey-box pen testing services provide a more focused security assessment because the testers use their internal knowledge to check the systems with the greatest risk and value in the beginning rather than spending time determining this information on their own. An internal system account also allows network penetration testing inside the hardened perimeter as the tester can simulate an attacker with longer-term network access.

White Box

In a White Box pen test, the tester works closely with your IT and security teams to analyze your cyber security comprehensively. Unlike Black-box and Grey-box methods, white-box pen testing services include static code and network analysis to identify configuration errors and software vulnerabilities. However, dynamic pentest tools and techniques may also be included. Many companies prefer White Box pen tests because they are more efficient and save both time and money.

Which penetration testing services are best for you?

The choice depends on your unique circumstances, requirements, vulnerabilities and security policies. Contact a DIESEC specialist to determine the most appropriate option for you!

The Scope of a Penetration Testing

Our penetration testing services can be divided into key areas: networks, website penetration testing, applications and people.

A weakness in your network can lead to criminals stealing your valuable information and infecting your computer systems. Unprotected web applications can be shut down or exploited to access sensitive data. A social engineering attack on an untrained employee can corrupt all your information and computers with ransomware. These are just a few examples of the never-ending list of the harm and losses a cyber attack can cause.

You can choose to pen test all your assets or just the most valuable ones. Usually, this choice is based on your risk assessment results. Get in touch with our certified analysts and develope collaboratively the scope and penetration testing definition based on your unique requirements.

Is Penetration Testing risky?

No. Security penetration testing is completely safe when done by an experienced and qualified professional. Conducting a pen test requires surgical precision and is akin to walking through a minefield– there are many pitfalls and traps that only a licensed penetration tester can observe and avoid. For example, incorrectly planned cyber attacks can increase system outages. Incorrectly defined scope of IP addresses in a network pentest may lead to intrusion into a network outside your organization, resulting in legal liabilities. Finally, unscrupulous individuals may misuse the data that they accessed while conducting the pen test.

In short, penetration testing is a sophisticated task that requires expertise in several technical areas, cyber threat intelligence, quick thinking, out of the box problem solving and high ethical standards. That's why you should choose third party pen testing services only after careful research.

All DIESEC penetration testers are proven, high-qualified specialists, with rich hands-on experience and the most authoritative certifications in this area – CEH, OSCP, CISA, and more. The hundreds of penetration testings that we have successfully conducted are the best evidence that you can trust our specialists!

FAQ

What is penetration testing and its types?

Penetration testing, or pen testing, is a practice of ethical hacking deployed by companies that wish to put the performance of their cybersecurity teams and tools under scrutiny. Pen testing can be performed by in-house experts or by employing external ethical hackers.

Pen testing types are categorized by target, and by approach. In terms of target, pentesting types include network services, web applications, social engineering, client-side, wireless, and physical penetration testing. In terms of approach, the most common types of penetration testing include black box, white box, blue team, and red team pen tests.

What is black box and white box testing?

In black box testing, an authentic hacking attempt is orchestrated. The attacking team needs to pass through all the usual stages, including reconnaissance, infiltration, establishing a foothold, and finding exploitable weaknesses. The authenticity of black box network penetration testing is equal to a real cyber-attack, which makes this approach ideal for companies that want to test the full performance of their system’s defenses. Black box testing is the opposite of white box testing in which the attackers are given precise information about system vulnerabilities, operating tools, and the personnel guarding the system.

What is blue team testing?

Blue team testing is often called in-house penetration testing. The blue team consists of individuals that are protecting the company’s assets. They evaluate and defend an organization’s security from red teams. These red teams play the role of attackers by identifying security vulnerabilities and launching attacks within a controlled environment. Both teams combine to reveal and strengthen the true state of an organization’s security. The main disadvantage of blue team testing is that the team needs to perform an array of different tasks, which means that there is more room for error.

What is red team testing?

Red box testing is linked to network penetration testing performed by licensed penetration testers, which are typically referred to as the ‘red team’. In red team testing, the blue team is not aware of the existence of the red team. The attackers are free to decide which tools they will use and which vulnerabilities they will try to exploit. The blue team is supposed to catch them in their efforts and prevent them from infiltrating the system. The purposes of red team testing are many, but the end goals are to determine the competency of the blue in-house team, and evaluate the performance of the current cybersecurity defences.

What is Pentest used for?

What does pen testing look for?

In a complex penetration testing operation, the pen test would look for:

Exploitable connectivity issues, such as open ports or unpatched applications
Injection vulnerabilities through DoS attacks
Encryption flaws with ransomware or spyware
The efficiency of the internal team through spyware

Ethical hackers do not simply flood the system with every virus and malware they find. A pentesting session is orchestrated and executed by professionals that probe numerous types of cybersecurity defenses before launching a specific attack.

What is an example of penetration testing?

A textbook example of penetration testing revolves around a company employing an ethical hacker to collect data from its system. The hacker is only given the name of the website and deploys spyware to infiltrate. In a more complex scenario, the hacker would initially fail and deploy botnets instead. Whether the hacker fails or succeeds, they submit a report to the employer about discovered vulnerabilities.

How long is pen testing?

What does a PenTest cost?

The cost of a pen testing operation depends on numerous factors, including the size of the company, the experience of the teams, and more importantly, desired effects.

Probing a system’s defenses is typically not as expensive as launching an all-out attack with a mission to overcome all barriers. The size of the company affects the size of the team that needs to be deployed; the remediation costs also play a factor.

Basic pen tests typically cost the same as educating an in-house team on how to use SaaS-based pen testing tools, which is usually several thousand dollars. Large-scale pen testing operations can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

What is PenTest certification?

How to Order a Penetration Testing from DIESEC?

Just contact us in a way convenient to you, and our IT security consultants will consult you about all the details of the process.