How can you test your business continuity plan with penetration testing?

Pen testing is crucial for any organization to assess how an organization would be impacted in case of any attacks. It ensures how resistant, the security systems are and how the business is continuing even when the security systems defend the attack.

In my cybersecurity role, penetration tests for our BCP have been pivotal. An unplanned drill revealed slow responses and poor communication. Post-test analysis led us to refine our protocols, significantly improving team coordination and reaction times. For practical advice: regularly update and test your BCP, involve all levels of staff in drills, and never underestimate the importance of clear communication channels. These steps are key to robust cyber resilience.

Penetration testing gives business owners a real-life insight into the risks that are posed to their business. It tells your IT team, and your company at large, what risks your business faces and how they are likely to manifest themselves if a hacker were to try and gain access to your network. In terms of building a realistic business continuity plan, this information is invaluable.

In aligning pen testing with BCP, I've found that one-size-fits-all approaches fall short. My team once faced a breach that our standard tests didn't predict. This was a wake-up call to tailor our pen testing more critically to our unique infrastructure. We started varying our testing methods — black-box, white-box, and everything in between — to uncover hidden vulnerabilities. Additionally, we involved different departments in creating real-world scenarios, which led to more robust disaster recovery strategies. Regularly revisiting and updating our BCP in light of test findings, and not just annually, turned out to be crucial. This constant refinement ensures that as our business evolves, so does our resilience to cyber threats.

First of all plan your scope with the help of the testing firm, you will need to make a list of all IT assets that you want to test, this may be devices, applications, networks. Then you want to notify your team, for many people have implications with the systems you are going to secure. Finally don't forget to introduce penetration testing into your IT security roadmap, it will be essential when it comes to securing future vulnerabilities from external threats.

Pen testing will allow you to prevent hackers from infiltrating your systems : pen tests are like a simulation of a real-life hack but without the damaging consequences of real life hacking. Therefore they will prove to be an efficient way of discovering vulnerabilities in your systems that will be later patched by your engineers and will lower the probability of being hacked.

Recently, a pen test we conducted for a client proved invaluable. Their company, an e-commerce platform, was expanding rapidly. Despite confidence in their security, our test uncovered a critical SQL injection vulnerability within their payment processing system. This flaw could have allowed attackers to access customer financial data. By identifying and addressing this issue proactively, we not only prevented a potentially devastating data breach but also fortified their overall security framework, safeguarding their reputation and customer trust.

Benefits of penetration testing: Identify and finding vulnerabilities Measure security posture Enhancing security controls Incident response testing Securing customer trust Improving security awareness Validating security investment Preventing financial loss Business continuity and resilience Testing cybersecurity resilience Continues improvement for cybersecurity prevention

Penetration testing can be a valuable component of testing your business continuity plan. It helps identify potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your application, systems, processes and infrastructure that could impact business operations during a crisis. Some suggestions to how can integrate penetration testing into your business continuity testing; Define objectives and scopes Simulate realistic scenarios Evaluate incident response procedures Assess data backup and recovery Test communication systems in crisis Document finding and recommendations Review and update the business continuity plan after penetration testing

This surprised me and gives me opportunity to share. Pen testing often targets customer facing applications or IAM, but what if your pen testers were challenged to target the backup and recovery solutions, and the the storage platform, can the backups be accessed, deleted, or modified. Target workstations and Network Attached Storage (NAS) to look for copies of the BC/TR plans, many BC/DR plans hold secrets they shouldn't. Pen testers can uncover how vulnerable your BC/DR plans and recovery solutions are without even forcing an outage, remember it's not "IF" your system will be attacked, it's "When." Pen Testers should want to help reduce this risk to cyber resiliency by reporting the risk before it's too late.

Conducting penetration tests is essential for a robust business continuity strategy. These tests pinpoint system vulnerabilities that may affect operations during unexpected disruptions. Key steps include: 1. Setting precise test goals and limits. 2. Running simulations that reflect real-world challenges. 3. Critically evaluating your incident management plans. 4. Testing the integrity of your data backup and recovery systems. 5. Checking crisis-time communication network resilience. 6. Documenting outcomes and formulating actionable insights. 7. Updating your continuity strategies with the findings to enhance organizational resilience.