What is Penetration Testing & Why is it Important For a Business to invest in Penetration Testing Services?
It’s the process of identifying weak points in an application by assessing the system or network with several malicious methods. The vulnerable points of a system are exploited in this process through an authorised attack.
The objective of this test is to acquire important data from outsiders like web hackers who can have unauthorised access to the system. Once the vulnerability is distinguished, it is used to exploit the system to gain access to sensitive data. A penetration test is also called a pen test, and a penetration tester is also referred to as an ethical hacker. We can figure out the vulnerable loopholes of a network, a web app or a network through penetration testing services.
A penetration test tells whether the existing system is strong enough to prevent any security breaks. Penetration test suggests the measures that can be taken to decrease the risk of the system being hacked.
Reasons Behind Vulnerabilities Design and development errors: There can be errors in the design of hardware and software. These bugs can put critical data of business at the risk of exposure. Poor system configuration: This is a big reason for vulnerability. If the system is inadequately configured, then it can introduce loopholes through which invaders can enter into the system & take the information.
Human errors: Human factors like irregular disposal of documents, coding mistakes, insider threats, sharing passwords over insecure sites, etc. can lead to security breaches. Connectivity: If the system is connected to a vulnerable network then it comes in the reach of hackers. Complexity: The security loopholes grows in ratio to the complexity of a system. The more features a system has, the more chances of the system being hacked.
Passwords: Passwords are used to block unauthorised access. They should be quite strong so that no one can guess your password. User Input: You might know about SQL injection, buffer overflows, etc. The data obtained electronically through these techniques can be used to attack the receiving system. Management: Security is difficult & costly to manage. Sometimes organisations lack behind in proper risk management, and hence vulnerability gets affected in the system.
Why Penetration testing Services? With extensive & serious cyber-attacks occurring these days, it has become essential to do penetration testing on regular intervals to protect the information systems against security attacks.
So, penetration testing is needed mainly for: – Financial or critical data must be kept safe while transferring them between different systems or over the web. – To secure user data. – To affirm security loopholes in an application. – To discover vulnerabilities in the system. – To meet the information security agreement in the organisation. – To implement an efficient security strategy in the organisation.
It’s essential for any organisation to distinguish security issues present in the internal network. Using this information organisation can plan a defence against any hacking effort. User privacy and data security are prominent concerns nowadays. Imagine if any hacker gets user details of social networking site like Facebook. The organisation might have to face some serious legal issues due to a small, vulnerable point left in a software system.