Penetration testing measures the effectiveness of your cybersecurity defense. And remember that their effectiveness changes over time, so repeat if necessary. In the world of cybersecurity, nothing is pertinent and forgettable.
A penetration test is actually a large number of tests designed to assess the security of your external IT assets. Specialized software is used to methodically identify exploitable vulnerabilities. He does this by inflicting numerous soft attacks on your defenses. Penetration testing examples can contain hundreds of different scheduled tests.
Vulnerability testing is a similar type of scan, but it runs on your network. It looks for vulnerabilities of the same type as penetration testing and checks if the operating system versions are up to date and still supported by the manufacturer. The tests identify vulnerabilities that an attacker or malware can exploit if they gain access to your network.
Benefits of penetration testing
The main advantage of a penetration test is knowledge. The report enables you to understand and fix known vulnerabilities in your IT assets, network and websites. The priority list clearly states which vulnerabilities should be addressed immediately, which should be addressed next, and so on. This ensures that your efforts are always focused on the most serious remaining vulnerabilities. It will definitely identify risks that you weren’t aware of, but it will also show you – albeit through negative data – areas that are already well protected.
Enhancing cybersecurity
Some penetration testing software can expose vulnerabilities due to misconfiguration or poor cybersecurity issues such as conflicting firewall rules or default passwords. These are simple, quick and inexpensive solutions that will immediately improve your cyberspace experience.
Anything that makes your cybersecurity more effective, protects your most sensitive data and contributes to the continuity of your business. And of course, preventing breaches and other security incidents also helps to avoid data protection penalties or lawsuits against data subjects.
Exploring Weaknesses
Knowing your weaknesses and their flaws can help you plan and build a roadmap for your defensive strategy. This allows you to budget and prioritize your security spending. It also allows you to spot gaps in your policies or areas that are not being followed.
If your patching strategy is followed, security patches and bug fixes should be applied in a timely manner after manufacturer release. Maintaining this discipline will leave your operating systems, applications, and firmware behind.
Increase in the number of clients
Increasingly, both potential and existing customers are requesting the results of a recent penetration testing report as part of their due diligence. The prospect must convince themselves that you take security seriously before they can trust you with their data. Existing customers also need to ensure that their current vendors are taking the necessary cybersecurity measures to prevent them from falling victim to attackers.
conclusions
In conclusion, we can sum up information and say that such testing really has many advantages that will help not only keep the data intact, but also get more clients.However, do not forget that penetration testing services should only be carried out by professionals.