Uncover Vulnerabilites with Penetration Testing

Penetration testing (also known as a pen test or ethical hacking) is a simulated cyber attack performed on networks, internal assets, web applications or mobile applications to identify weaknesses that could allow access to systems or sensitive data.

The test is performed by certified ethical hackers who attempt to identify and exploit vulnerabilities, then produce a detailed report of their findings, the potential risk rating and damage that could be caused, as well as recommendations for mitigation.

• External penetration testing can be performed on internet-facing infrastructure to mimic an attacker trying to gain access from outside the network.
• An internal penetration test simulates how an attacker who has gained an initial foothold inside the network or a malicious insider might be able to move laterally, escalate privileges, or compromise servers.
• Application security testing (web application or mobile application) can help an organization determine whether custom application software behaves and interacts securely with users, protects databases, and is not subject to execution vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability scanning is an automated process performed by a technology solution to identify any known vulnerabilities on all discovered assets but does not typically include the exploitation of identified flaws.

Penetration testing is a more involved process conducted by a security professional that includes manual probing followed by exploitation attempts to simulate what a real attacker would do and what the effect could be.

We broke this topic down further in this article.

The main difference between the two is the way in which they are conducted. Manual penetration testing is performed by human testers, whereas automated penetration testing uses only technology tools or software solutions.

Defendify penetration tests are manual processes. Although several technology tools are used during some phases of testing, the attempts at infiltration and exploitation are conducted by our expert testers.