Significance of Internal & External Pen-Tests

With changing customer preferences and evolving network technologies, enterprises need to strengthen their network security. Cyber-attackers identify new and sophisticated ways to breach a business’s networks, systems, or applications. It is the need of the hour for these enterprises to identify their own vulnerabilities, utilize internal and external penetration testing, and adopt new tools to meet the challenges of the current landscape. In the wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, businesses are prone to cyber-attacks, and they should associate with a penetration testing company to ensure safety. 

Penetration Testing 

Penetration testing is an authorized process to ascertain the security of a network. It is a structured way to run tests to find vulnerabilities of a system, including an operating system, network misconfigurations, and unsafe user behaviors. By evaluating their security system, they assess the strength of their security stature and adherence to security procedures. There are two types of penetration testing, internal and external pen-tests. 

Internal and External Penetration Testing 

External penetration testing is an attempt to exploit critical vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit remotely that could disrupt business operations, expose data, or steal sensitive information. On the other hand, internal penetration testing involves access to the internal network. It aims at providing valuable insights if an internal stakeholder could breach access to data without authorization. These tests can also identify how much damage intruder access can cause if an employee opens a phishing email, or how far a user could access a system if they accessed their device into the local network.

Significance of Pen-Tests

We have listed a few benefits of deploying penetration testing:

Detection of Security Threats 

We know that a pen-test estimates how capable an organization is in defending its networks, applications, and users from an attempt to breach the security protocols. The results from penetration testing can list down all the threats caused by security vulnerabilities, enabling the security teams to mitigate risks and resolve these threats. It allows enterprises to efficiently identify all the possible security threats and ensure that no unauthorized access to critical information is possible. Regular penetration tests ensure the security of critical systems, networks, and applications. 

Minimize Network Downtime

It is obvious that placing security measures can be expensive for businesses. To avoid attacks enterprises need remediation measures including retention programs, customer protection, reduced revenues, etc. Pen testing supports organizations to avoid these financial losses by detecting and detecting threats before security breaches or attacks take place. 

Security Breaches can be Expensive 

Due to security loopholes, business operations can be disrupted as a result of app performance issues, damage a company’s reputation, affect customer loyalties, incur fines, and heavy penalties. But businesses that hire a penetration testing company to avoid these expensive costs. 

Protecting a Brand’s Image and Customer Loyalty 

We know that a compromised business system or application can severely damage a brand’s image and have a negative impact on its reputation. With the help of a penetration testing team, these businesses can avoid incidents that may put a company’s image at stake. These tests are designed to exploit vulnerabilities and deploy remediation policies. It can help organizations in avoiding invasion of the IT infrastructure. It is also recommended for businesses to maintain a proactive approach to maintain a secure environment and protect its reputation. 

Monitoring the Penalties

IT departments and security experts ensure adherence to procedures such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and report testing necessities according to the PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) commands. The reports produced by penetration tests can assist organizations in avoiding penalties for non-compliance with security standards and also help them in maintaining the required security standards.

A business should invest in the right penetration testing company and should ensure that penetration tests are performed when there is a change in a network infrastructure. Pen-testers are experts who will scrutinize the systems for any weaknesses that could be used by attackers to compromise the integrity of a network. Selecting a penetration testing company can be a difficult task as the industry is plagued with unqualified professionals. To ensure adherence to all security standards and secure network vulnerabilities, pen tests simulate the malicious hackers who do not follow rules and misuse networks for their personal gains. Thus, different companies have adopted various tools, processes, and techniques to perform pen-tests to achieve their desired results.