What is Penetration Testing or Pen Testing in Cyber Security?

What is penetration testing?

Penetration testing (or pen testing) is a security practice where a cyber-security specialist tries to find and exploit vulnerabilities in a computer system. The purpose of this simulated attack is to identify any weak spots in a system’s defenses. So could take advantage of.

This is like a bank hiring someone to dress as a burglar. And they try to break into their building and gain access to the vault. If the criminal works and gets into the bank or the vault, the bank will gain important data. By using them they need to stretch their security tests.

Read: Cyber security tips for you

Who performs penetration testing?

It’s best to have a pen test performed by someone with little-to-no prior knowledge of how the system is secure. Because they may be able to expose blind spots that are missed by the security engineer who develops the system. For this reason, outside entrepreneurs are usually take in to complete the tests. These contractors often refer to as ethical attackers since they are being hire to break into a system with permission and to increase security.

Many ethical attackers are experience developers with advanced degrees and certification for pen-testing. On the other hand, some of the best ethical attackers are self-taught. Some are grown illegal attackers who now use their expertise to assist fix security defects rather than exploit them. The best applicant to carry out a pen test can differ hugely depending on the target company or organization and what type of pen test they need to launch.

What are the types of penetration testing?

• White box pen test – In this test, the attacker will be equipped with some data ahead of time concerning the target company’s security info.
• Black box pen test – This test is also known as a ‘blind’ test. This is one where the attacker is provided no experience information or data besides the name of the target company.
• Covert pen test -It also known as a ‘double-blind’ pen test, this is a situation where nearly no one in the company is assure that the pen test is happening, including the IT and security specialists who will be responding for these kinds of attack. For covert tests, the attacker needs to have the scope and other details of the test in writing beforehand to avoid any problems with law enforcement.
• External pen test – In this test, the ethical attacker works up against the company’s external-facing technology, for example, their website, application service, and external network servers. In some cases, the attacker may not still be permite to enter the company’s building. This can mean carrying the attack from a remote area or taking out the action from a truck or van parked nearby places.
• Internal pen test – In an internal test, the ethical attacker conducts the test from the company’s internal network. This kind of test is very helpful in discovering how much damage a dissatisfied employee can affect from another side of the company’s firewall.

Read: What is two factor authentication?

Why Perform Pen-Tests

Security breaches and service checks are costly

Security gaps and any similar interruptions in the production of services or applications, can result in primary economic losses. And also threaten organizations’ fame, erode customer loyalties, bring the negative press, and trigger important fines and penalties.

It is impossible to safeguard all information, all the time.

Traditionally, companies have tried to stop breaks by installing and maintaining layers of protecting security tools. For example user access controls, cryptography, IPS, IDS, firewalls, and more. However, the sustained choice of new technologies, including some of these security policies, has made it hard. It is too harder to find and defeat all of the companies’ vulnerabilities. And defend against many types of possible security incidents.

Penetration-testing identifies and prioritizes security risks.

Pen-testing assesses an organization’s capacity to shield its networks, applications, endpoints, and users from outside or inside attempts. To circumvent its security controls to get unauthorize or free access to defended assets.

To gain more knowledge, read more. For this type of article Visit us: https://geeksoogle.com