Proactive Cybersecurity is Critical

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Proactive Cybersecurity is Critical
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In recent years, cybersecurity attacks have
become far too common for organizations in all
industries of all sizes. Even businesses that
have security teams on staff and solutions in
place have been lost data in high-profile
cyber-attacks. One critical way of minimizing
risk in your environment is to conduct
penetration testing consulting services on a
bi-yearly basis. Penetration testing is when a
security expert acts as a hacker to identify
vulnerabilities that would be exploited if an
attack were to occur. Businesses who conduct
these types of tests on a regular basis are more
likely to take a proactive approach to their
cybersecurity. They will be more likely to
protect their business from an attack before it
happens instead of having to respond to an attack
that has already occurred. Cybersecurity attacks
are a business's worst nightmare as it is costly
to lose data and aim to restore data after a
breach. Security breaches can also be harmful to
a company's reputation, causing customers and
partners to lose trust in the organization's
ability to keep their data safe. For these
reasons, penetration testing consulting services
should be a key aspect of any organization's
yearly security practices. Penetration Testing
The Basics A key goal of penetration testing
consulting services is to reduce an
organization's attack surface. To do this, the
tester will conduct both manual and automated
tests that simulate real-world attacks. The
organization's IT environment will be searched
for vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a
hacker. The vulnerabilities that were detected
during the test will be remediated to reduce the
attack surface. The smaller the attack surface,
the better protected an organization is against
potential threats. Penetration testing
consulting services is a critical step for any
business to take, but it is especially important
for businesses that operate in regulated
industries. Many industries require companies to
reach a certain level of security compliance in
order to conduct business. Being in
noncompliance with industry standards such as
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HIPAA, PCI DSS, or CMMC can result in costly
fines. In addition to fines, having improper
security hygiene puts your organization at
greater risk of a security breach. Security
breaches are very expensive to clean up and puts
your organization's reputation at risk.
Conducting regular penetration tests is an
essential way to stay in compliance with the
security standards of the industry. The Steps of
a Pen Test A regular penetration test includes a
variety of steps to detect and remediate threats
in an environment. First, automatic security
scanning will be conducted to identify any
vulnerabilities. Next, the results of the scan
will be analyzed. It is during this step that
false positives will be removed. A report will
be developed with the results of this initial
scan. Next, the tester will review the network
security design and identify any weaknesses.
Testing will be done manually to validate the
weaknesses that were identified in the automated
scan. An important step in penetration testing
consulting services is that the tester will
review the network security design of your
environment and identify and weaknesses. The
consultant will review the security policies
that your company is currently following and aim
to fill the gaps between your current level of
security posture and the required level for your
goals. Once the first patches are put in place, a
rescan will be performed to see address the
vulnerabilities that were left out of the
initial scan. Going through these steps on a
bi-yearly basis is recommended for most
security-conscious organizations. Talk to your
cybersecurity consultant about the right
penetration testing consulting services for your
security goals. Types of Penetration Testing
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External Penetration Testing An external attack
comes from outside of an organization. In an
external pen test, the ethical hacker will
simulate an external attack. The goal is to
exploit the perimeters of the environment to see
what types of vulnerabilities can be exploited
from an external actor and begin the process of
remediation. Internal Penetration Testing An
internal attack is one that either comes from
inside an organization or comes from an outside
actor that is posing as someone from the
organization. In an internal pen test, the tester
will try to escape out of network boundaries and
attempt to gain unauthorized access to the
network. Through this process, they will see what
types of vulnerabilities could be exploited by
an internal hacker and begin to remediate them.