Penetration testing is a vital cyber security practice in which authorised, simulated cyber attacks are carried out across an organisation’s IT infrastructure to evaluate how secure it is.
Pen testers utilise the tools, techniques, and processes attackers use to identify vulnerabilities to be secured. In an increasingly volatile threat landscape, penetration tests provide businesses with the protection and assurance they need to continue operating securely.
What can penetration testing do?
Businesses are faced with a plethora of cyber security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cyber criminals. Luckily, this means they can also be identified by penetration testing. The most common vulnerabilities are:
Weak Passwords
Using default or weak passwords provides cyber criminals with the easiest entryway into your systems, allowing them to access and exploit your data. Weak passwords can be exploited through brute-force attacks or ‘password sprays’ to allow attackers to gain sensitive information. This applies to hardware such as printers and scanners too, where default passwords are often kept and easily breached to gain access to a network.
Unpatched Software
Outdated or unsupported systems have known vulnerabilities that attackers can use to compromise systems, gain control, and steal data. These vulnerabilities can be found across internal/external infrastructure and web applications, such as unsupported operating systems, missing patches, and out-of-date software. These increase the risk of being targeted by remote code execution, DoS, and XSS attacks, as well as the general risk of attackers accessing sensitive information.
Misconfigured Systems
Incorrect security settings in servers, firewalls, databases, or cloud services can expose sensitive data and allow unauthorised access. It’s like handing a burglar keys to your house. Hackers can easily gain access to systems when the configuration has failed to change the default passwords, is overly permissive with access rights, or has open ports.
Poor Data Encryption
Storing or transmitting sensitive data with insufficient encryption provides a golden opportunity for hackers to intercept, steal, or read the data during transit between systems or from the compromised system itself. This can include attackers intercepting login credentials via man-in-the-middle attacks.
Social Engineering Vulnerabilities
The leading cause of cyber attacks is human error. Criminals exploit this using phishing attacks or social engineering tactics to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information or granting access. This is one of the most vital aspects of penetration testing.
How does penetration testing work?
Penetration testing takes a structured approach to identifying and addressing vulnerabilities in an organisation’s IT infrastructure. This starts with planning to define the scope, goals, and rules of the test before the pen tester collects information about the ‘target’ to identify entry points, creating a map of the IT infrastructure. Once vulnerabilities are identified, the test exploits them to obtain proof of the vulnerability and see the potential extent of the damage caused by this access. Finally, the findings are compiled into a report that the organisation can use to strengthen vulnerabilities and prevent attacks.
The types of penetration testing:
Network Infrastructure Pen Tests: This test assesses your internal and public-facing infrastructure for vulnerabilities, thoroughly investigating your network inside and out to identify and exploit vulnerabilities. Our report then recommends how to address the risks that have been identified.
Web Application Pen Tests: Websites and web applications are an essential utility that often hold vast amounts of sensitive information, making them an attractive target for criminals. This is why web application pen testing is crucial. We offer web application pen testing with multiple test types, including API and authenticated testing.
Cloud Pen Tests: These tests help organisations improve their cloud security by examining attack, breach, operability, and recovery issues within a cloud environment. Our assessments help organisations overcome cloud-specific challenges by uncovering and addressing vulnerabilities, improving overall security, and helping to achieve compliance.
Social Engineering: Humans are the greatest weakness in an organisation’s IT security, while social engineering is the single biggest IT security threat that faces your business. Our social engineering pen test service is designed to test your employees’ security vigilance. A social engineering pen test will help you evaluate how susceptible you are to social engineering attacks while informing a targeted security awareness training program.
Wireless Network Pen Testing: Wireless networks, and other wireless access points, are an easy way for a cyberattacker to breach your system. With the rise of remote working, attackers are gaining direct access to internal networks without having to breach firewalls. Wireless network pen testing helps businesses understand how a criminal could move through their wireless infrastructure, escalating their privileges and compromising their corporate network.
Mobile Application Pen Testing: Today, we’re all reliant on mobile and more organisations are using the flexibility and functionality of mobile to provide convenience. Indeed, mobile applications are often the primary way for customers to interact with a business, but there are a lot of risks associated with this. Mobile application pen testing is a comprehensive strategy that ensures you are safeguarding your stakeholders and your reputation.
Is it really effective?
We could continue to list the endless benefits of using penetration testing in your cybersecurity strategy, but instead, let’s see how pen testing could have prevented a huge breach.
In August of 2021, the UK Electoral Commission fell victim to an extensive cyber attack that went undetected for over a year. This breach exposed the personal information of 40 million voters, creating significant concerns over future attacks on businesses or individuals. In an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) following the breach, it was revealed that the Electoral Commission was entirely at fault. Failing to take basic steps such as patch management or improving password security meant systems were outdated and therefore easy to breach, and numerous passwords had not been changed from easily exploited defaults. Following this, the Electoral Commission expressed sincere regret that they had failed to implement proper cybersecurity and acted swiftly to put these measures in place. These measures were, however, too little too late.
Now, if the Electoral Commission had implemented regular penetration testing prior to the attack, the breach would never have occurred. The extensive range of penetration testing methods and applications are specifically designed to identify weaknesses such as outdated software vulnerabilities and poor password management. Testing would have identified the attack the watchdog eventually fell victim to, as well as other breach scenarios, allowing the Electoral Commission to address these weaknesses proactively and prevent an attack from occurring. When we look at this incident as an example, the critical importance of routine penetration testing shines through to safeguard sensitive data and maintain public trust.
Trust in the experts to guarantee your security
Penetration testing is a vital tool for ensuring the strength of your cyber defences that cannot go unused. It’s also imperative that businesses seek out an experienced, trusted professional to carry out these tests to ensure all aspects of their cyber security are being sufficiently tested.
At SupPortal we offer a wide range of penetration testing services to cover all aspects of cybersecurity that are competitively priced to suit businesses of all sizes. Our in-depth analysis seeks out even the smallest vulnerabilities and includes a detailed post-test report to highlight the next steps. Find out more about our penetration testing services now: https://supportal-uk.com/penetration-testing/
