What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration Testing is the act of legally and ethically attacking systems and applications as a ‘real-world’ hacker would do with the aim to discover vulnerabilities and misconfigurations which could lead to a breach of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of those systems.
“Penetration Testing is also known by other names and is often also referred to as a Pen Test, Ethical Hacking and Security Testing and it is common to hear these other phrases thrown around in conversation. Ultimately though, they all mean the same thing.”
Who performs Penetration Testing?
Penetration Testing is performed by skilled individuals that have several years’ experience performing such a role, not only this, but they also tend to hold industry standard certifications. In the UK, certifications such as the NSCS approved CREST and Cyber Scheme examinations are pretty much gold standard these days along with the new OSCE3 offered by Offensive Security. These certifications are designed to test the penetration testers breadth and depth of knowledge against life like systems.
Penetration Testing can cover a whole lot of things from web applications all the way to hardware such as set top boxes, car parts and much more. We’ve made another quick jargon free blog post on the different types of Penetration Testing along with the benefits of performing penetration testing
SMARTSEC information security are CREST accredited for Penetration Testing services and are able to meet all your Penetration Testing requirements.
If you’re interested in any of our services, please don’t hesitate to contact us or alternatively book your free 45-minute consultation.