How Pen Testing Combats Cyber Crime

As cyber criminals continue to get brazen, companies of all sizes demand the most resilient security measures to combat today’s sophisticated attacks. Penetration testing (pen testing), also known as ethical hacking, is a critical weapon every business needs as part of its cyber defense strategy. By adding pen testing to the organization’s security roadmap, companies will not only be able to boost their cyber fitness but do so in a cost-effective, non-disruptive way.

Not sure what’s involved in a Pen test or how to get started? Keep reading for more details.

What’s Penetration Testing?

You may already know about pen testing. After all, experts are predicting over six billion additional phishing attacks to occur this year alone, costing organizations billions of dollars and irreversible reputational harm. As cybercrime continues to alter how IT teams operate and safeguard their networks, well-defined, periodic pen testing is combined with other security strategies to ensure your environment is protected against costly attacks.

With pen testing, vulnerabilities are exposed. By identifying vulnerabilities and weaknesses across networks and systems - before malicious attackers do - businesses gain an increased level of preparedness and a robust, proactive approach.

Pen testing launches simulated real-world attacks against your assets. An ethical hack goes beyond traditional vulnerability scans, combining a comprehensive security scan and the latest threat intelligence to exploit more complex shortcomings while putting current security measures to the test. Upon entering a network or targeted systems through various entry points, a pen test takes the path a cybercriminal would to gain unauthorized access to your environment, igniting havoc to compromise data.

?The Phases of Pen Testing

?Here are the phases of a penetration test broken down into simple terms:

●?????Scoping and Discovery: Information is gathered across the network and systems to plan the attack, and tools are used to identify open ports across the network.

●?????Vulnerability assessment: Once all data has been gathered, vulnerabilities are assessed.

●?????Exploitation: The most fragile yet critical phase. Here the pen test accesses the network and target systems and exploits vulnerabilities via a real-world attack.

●?????Reporting: Used to improve an organization’s security posture, this phase calls out vulnerabilities via a detailed report explaining business impact, risks, remediation, and recommendations.

Choosing a Pen Test Provider

When working with a provider to initiate a pen test, engaging with a company that holds the highest level of certifications and provides detailed planning is vital. As with any security service, it’s critical to consider the scope and budget while ensuring an ongoing proactive pen testing schedule to keep ahead of evolving threats, actors, and internal vulnerabilities in cyberspace. As stringent compliance requirements continue to grow, you’ll want to ensure that once a pen test is complete and your assets are secured against all known high and medium vulnerabilities, a certified pass report can be accessed. This report can be used to meet audit, regulatory, and compliance requirements.

At Xtel, we can help you conduct a penetration test, identify vulnerabilities, and seamlessly assign them for remediation. As with all our security and telecom solutions, our team performs tailored internal and external scans customized to meet your business requirements. In addition to a thorough, detailed vulnerability report and remedy guidance, Xtel can automate security tasks and save your IT team hundreds of hours that they can use to focus on other critical aspects of your security stack and new digital innovations.

To learn more about Xtel's penetration testing and other security services, click here.??

The Benefits of Pen Testing

While penetration testing has many benefits, the most important is ultimately preventing a costly cyber attack, as pen testing helps organizations become less vulnerable. They also increase security teams' awareness of the latest threats. From a compliance standpoint, many companies are now required to undergo periodic penetration testing to stay compliant with the latest laws and regulations, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

With so many increasingly bold and new scams bad actors are applying to exploit and gain access to networks, every business must add periodical pen testing to fight and ultimately win the battle against cybercrime. If you’re looking to explore having a pen test initiated and want to learn more, schedule a free technology consultation with an Xtel advisor.