SMARTSEC insights
Security testing insights.
Clear, practical guidance on penetration testing, AI security and financial services.
Financial Services
Security testing for financial services
Threat-led testing focused on important business services and board-ready evidence.
Read article →Financial ServicesWhat the FCA actually expects from your penetration test
The FCA doesn't mandate pen testing by name, but its operational resilience rules make independent testing hard to avoid. Here's how to make your test count as evidence.
Read article →Financial ServicesDORA for UK firms: does it apply to you, and what testing does it expect?
DORA is EU regulation, but it reaches UK groups with EU entities and UK ICT suppliers to EU financial firms. What it means for your penetration testing.
Read article →Financial ServicesPen testing for wealth and investment managers: five attack paths to test first
Wealth and investment firms hold high-value client assets and data with lean IT teams. Five attack paths a penetration test should cover first.
Read article →Financial ServicesFintech pen testing before launch, funding or a banking partnership
Investors, sponsor banks, card schemes and enterprise clients all ask fintechs for pen test evidence. How to get a test that passes due diligence first time.
Read article →Financial ServicesBusiness email compromise in financial services: how to test your Microsoft 365 tenant
BEC and payment diversion fraud start in Microsoft 365. What a security test of your tenant should cover, and the misconfigurations that matter most.
Read article →Penetration Testing
How much does a penetration test cost in the UK?
Typical costs, scope and what to expect from a fixed-price test.
Read article →Penetration TestingHow to choose a penetration testing company in the UK: 10 questions to ask
Pen test quality varies enormously. Ten questions that separate real manual testing from a rebadged vulnerability scan, and what good answers sound like.
Read article →Penetration TestingHow to scope a penetration test (and avoid paying for the wrong one)
Scope decides whether a pen test finds what matters. A practical guide to scoping web, API, infrastructure and cloud tests, and what to prepare before the call.
Read article →AI Security
AI and LLM penetration testing: what it covers
How to security test chatbots, copilots and RAG applications. A practical walk through the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications and what testers actually do.
Read article →AI SecurityTesting AI agents and MCP: the new attack surface
AI agents with tools and Model Context Protocol (MCP) connections can read, write and act. Here's how attackers abuse them and how to test yours.
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