What Is Penetration Testing and Why Is It Important?

There are many ways that your business can protect its internal data. However, all of that protection can be null and void if your systems are working against you. Many companies’ infrastructure is full of vulnerabilities that open them up to an attack. One of the best ways to ensure that your systems are protected is to perform penetration testing. If you are wondering what is penetration testing and why it is important, continue reading to learn why your company should invest in this security measure.

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing or pen-testing is a way to test the security of your IT infrastructure to find exploitable vulnerabilities within your systems. The penetration tester will show you where you have vulnerabilities within your firewall, security controls, computer systems, web applications, and more. These tests also successfully validate your network security and the methodologies you have in place to stop data breaches.

​Why is Penetration Testing Important?

Pen-testing is a practical regulatory test to understand what remediation efforts need to be put in place by your security team to secure your vulnerabilities. It helps you determine which risk management steps your company needs to focus on to ensure that your information security is as fortified as possible. Ultimately, it is a great tool to prioritize the areas that need attention.

Hackers are constantly advancing, and penetration testing can help you combat the many complex forms of data breaching. With this research, you can also train your team to spot malicious activity. This will enable you to protect the information that is most important to your organization.

Types of Penetration Testing

There are a few different types of penetration tests that cybersecurity experts rely on. The main ones are:

• Network Security Tests: Testing your internal and external network with manual and automated scanners to provide visibility into your risks.
• IoT Security Tests: Analyzing the intricacies of IoT technology to map out all entry and endpoints and find where they lead to vulnerabilities.
• Web Application Tests: Ensuring the quality of your software by testing your web applications’ functionality and usability.
• Cloud Security Tests: Running simulated malware breaches on the system that is hosted on your cloud provider.
• Social Engineering: Using (ethical!) phishing scams to target your company’s employees to see which tactics weaken your teams’ internal defense and where you can improve on training.

What is the Best Penetration Testing Tool?

Most testing tools are software-based. There are a multitude of options available, so if you choose to conduct a test yourself, we recommend that you do all the proper research to ensure that you are using the best one for your business.

You can also have trained cybersecurity experts perform these tests and see where your organization’s weaknesses are. This is recommended to ensure you’re creating an authentic and accurate testing process.

In either case, you must always make sure that your network is as secure as possible. At Warwick Communications, we can help protect your company from suspicious cyber attacks or breaches. Contact us today to learn more about our cybersecurity solutions!