Penetration Testing: A Holistic View of Your Resilience
Yael Pietri
Senior Pentester
Assessing your organization’s resilience through penetration testing is no longer an option but an imperative if you want to avoid finding yourself in an inadequate security stance. Different types of cyber attacks and threats emerge every year, underlining the importance of regular intrusion testing of all your information systems.
Find out all about this type of ethical hacking and how to exploit it to develop an impenetrable security posture.
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Becoming Your Own Hacker to Reinforce Your Organization's IT Security
“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.”
This well-known quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War is aptly aligned with the situation organizations face when dealing with hackers. There's no more effective way of countering piracy than by investigating and testing your systems from a hacker's point of view.
Why? Because there's a substantial gap between the security measures in place and the ingenuity of cybercriminals who are constantly developing new hacking methods to counter every cyber security innovation.
Understanding that your current IT security may be lagging behind is a necessary realization. From this starting point, you can begin to reduce risks and close this gap, notably through penetration testing, which helps identify vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
Primary Security Risks
Component Obsolescence: Any exploitable vulnerabilities in software and hardware that are not up to date.
Lack of Training: The impact of people in strategic positions who are not trained or aware of cybersecurity threats.
Criticality Level of Access Control: Poor management of user accounts and access rights to the internal network.
Missing or Inadequate Backup Strategy: The lack of a backup plan, or an inadequate backup plan, is a major risk in the event of data loss, theft or leakage.
Vulnerability of Information Systems: Without a vulnerability audit or IT security test, the risk of attack increases.
Cybersecurity Pentesting: What It Is and How to Do It
Pentests, also known as penetration or intrusion tests, are the best way to thoroughly assess the security level of your information systems. A pentest is a simulated attack on your network, operating system, web applications and IT systems carried out by a cybersecurity pentester.
If you're wondering whether doing a pentest in your organization is worth it, the answer is yes. Your security depends on your ability to anticipate and counter attacks, and the best method of exposing your vulnerabilities and understanding your level of resilience is penetration testing.
Pentest vs Vulnerability Assessment
The security audit is useful for identifying potential gaps in your security and analyzing your policies and devices. The main difference between a pentest and a vulnerability scan is that the intrusion test goes far beyond static analysis; it's designed to test your resilience in a real, controlled attack situation.
A pentesting report is therefore much more detailed than the audit since it explains the methods used to penetrate your system, the detected vulnerabilities and the recommendations adapted to each type of attack and vulnerability.
Objectives and Frequency of Penetration Testing for Best Results
Penetration testing should be part of every organization's security routine. At the very least, a penetration test should be carried out annually, but we ideally recommend a test every three months to guarantee that you keep up with emerging threats.
Although web application security is a priority, pentesting should involve an integral approach. This means targeting your entire information system, not just applications or the network.
3 Pentest Types to Measure Your Resilience
An expert can guide the choice of the appropriate type of pentest according to the organization's specific needs. Pentests fall into two categories: external pentest (black box) and internal pentest (white and gray box). Learn more about the external and internal types of penetration testing.
- White Box: The pentester has access to all the information on the target system, just like an administrator, allowing for more targeted attacks.
- Gray Box: This internal intrusion test is carried out with partial information, for example, from the point of view of an employee who has access to certain parts of the internal network.
- Black Box: Performed from the hacker's point of view, the penetration testers have no information or easy access to the target system in order to simulate an actual attack.
6 Benefits of Pentesting for Cybersecurity
- Identifying potential security vulnerabilities
- Strengthening security posture and resilience
- Reducing the risk of sensitive data being leaked and of unauthorized access
- Preventing cyber-attacks
- Analyzing cybersecurity incident response capabilities
- Ensuring compliance with applicable standards
Ensuring Compliance through Penetration Testing
All organizations must comply with the regulations applicable to their sector, such as PCI-DSS and ISO 27001.
Penetration testing is an essential step in compliance audits. The reports produced serve to demonstrate that your systems are adequately protected against any threats or cyber attacks. They also serve to validate your security and encourage continuous improvement in your IT security practices.
Victrix Strengthens Your Security Posture with a Holistic Pentesting Methodology
Victrix offers comprehensive, personalized pentesting services and campaigns to identify security flaws in your organization before cybercriminals can exploit them.
Our expertise enables us to turn cybersecurity into a real value driver. Conducting a targeted pentest project on your systems helps to:
- Identify and reduce your attack surface
- Increase your clients and partners’ trust
- Align security with your business needs
You can also trust our consultants to provide detailed recommendations for securing your information systems.
- Data protection with the best experts, tools and techniques
- Cybersecurity solutions tailored to the challenges of your industry
- Optimized risk management
- Enhance the security of your computer systems
- Implementation of cybersecurity best practices
Our experts are here to support and advise you on all your business issues.
Our Pentest Framework for Controlled Testing
Pentest as a Service (PTaaS)
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Traditional Pentest Services
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| ✅Launch several pentests with agility throughout the year ✅Identify critical vulnerabilities and provide remediation guidance ✅Pilot your remediation plan by tracking developments on our ARA portal ✅Periodically assess the risk profile of your assets ✅Respect your compliance obligations and legal requirements ✅Demonstrate the resilience of your environments to your customers/partners/investors |
✅Complete a security audit with a situation scenario ✅Provide an overview at a given point in time ✅Seek to identify exploitable vulnerabilities, those that constitute threats and their dangerousness ✅Sort vulnerabilities by criticality and prioritize corrective actions ✅Respect your compliance obligations and legal requirements |
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Use Cases
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Use Cases
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