A Beginner’s Guide to External Penetration Testing

Software vulnerabilities are more common than you think. They’re usually introduced during the software development and implementation phase. Web Application security is the area of most risk from a security breach standpoint, therefore, external penetration testing is very important to protect your system from getting compromised.

External pen testing involves reviewing vulnerabilities that could be exploited by external users without the appropriate rights or credentials to access a system. If you’re not familiar with this concept, here’s a guide containing three crucial stages of external penetration testing:

Planning

The planning stage involves deciding the scope of the project. The client provides target information, which includes IP addresses, URLs, and decides areas that require rigorous testing with their service provider.

Furthermore, a meeting is conducted with the client to review the rules of engagements, decide the project timeline, establish goals, and document any limitations. It helps to ensure that the pen testing process will go smoothly and prevent disputes.

Execution

There are five phases of external pen testing process:

Reconnaissance: This phase involves open-source intelligence gathering to identify any sensitive information such as email addresses, usernames, software information, etc. Testers also look for data that shouldn’t be available to the public.

The objective is to gather maximum information to use during the subsequent phases of external pen-testing. It also helps create a richer profile of an organisation’s security strengths and weaknesses.

Threat Modelling: This phase involves evaluating the type of threats surrounding the system of an organisation. Learning about the severity and types of threat helps understand risks and determine an attack path similar to real-world attacks.

Vulnerability Analysis: This analysis involves discovery and enumeration of all in-scope applications. Using automated and manual techniques, testers aim to identify existing vulnerabilities and previously published weaknesses of the system.

Every service is manually examined and tested for default credentials. Moreover, an unauthenticated portion of web applications is carefully inspected for vulnerabilities.

Exploitation: The tester attempt to exploit all vulnerabilities identified during earlier stages to penetrate inside the system, just like any cybercriminal would. It helps to create a realistic risk profile and to analyse the probability of attack chains.

Moreover, it also tests the effectiveness of mitigating controls that are placed to deter these types of attacks, if any.

Post Exploitation: Once the exploitation phase is completed, the collected information is used to rank identified vulnerabilities. Creating a list that prioritises these risks helps to formulate an effective plan that will help to eliminate these weaknesses to keep the system secure.

Post-Execution

Once the execution stage is completed, the pen testing service provider will provide a document that contains all their findings. The assessment report will include critical issues discovered, risk profiles, and overall security levels of the organisation.  

It will also contain remedial actions and suggestions, among other information that can help an organisation to mitigate these issues. These reports go through quality assurance and address questions pertinent to assessment output to facilitate the organisation to take appropriate steps.

Looking to improve the security of your systems by conducting external pen testing? Well, let us at Lean Security help you with the support you need. Protect your sensitive information from cybercriminals by hiring our top-quality external penetration testing services. To find out more, get in touch with us today!

Professional Malware Detection Service: Why Is It Important?

Taking a proactive approach and strengthening your cyber security controls keeps hackers out of the system and prevents valuable data of the organisation from getting compromised. In light of malware’s prevalence on the internet, it has become absolutely critical to carry out malware detection to keep the system secure from cyber-attacks.

Let’s find out more!

What is malware?

Malware is a dangerous, harmful software that infiltrates the computer via the fake installer, infected email attachment, or phishing links. As malware is disguised as legitimate software, an average computer user can easily be fooled in downloading and installing it in their system.

Once a malware makes its way in the computer, it hides in a different folder and begins encrypting files and recording personal information of users stored in the system. Simply stating, it’s malicious software that steals data, encrypts files, and infects the computer by self-replicating itself in the system.

Let’s learn why it is so important to hire professional malware detection services for your business: 

Importance of professional malware detection service

According to McAfee, there were eight million new variants of crimeware in the first quarter of 2010 alone, and that was ten years ago.

The risks of malware have gone up over the last few years as we’ve seen exceptional technological advancements which have equipped hackers with sophisticated software and tools to create more deadly malware and viruses.

Therefore, anti-malware software and antivirus can only do so much. In fact, they are mostly build using the historical data pertinent to malware, which means that they can’t foresee the latest malware attacks. Moreover, this software doesn’t provide a personalised solution for enterprises to safeguard their systems against these attacks

Malware analysis is typically an essential part of the cyber-security plan for many enterprises. They hire professional malware detection services which allow them to keep their systems secured. Using their expertise, professionals can formulate secure systems and isolate and remove malware attacks so they can’t damage the system.

Reputed security testing service providers employ experienced malware detection experts who can easily find and mitigate viruses, worms, and spyware that can infect your computer systems. This process can even be completed over Cloud as professionals simply need access to the web environment of your systems to carry out their services.

Have you become a victim of a vicious malware attack? Here’s what you need to do.

For further reading: Effects of malware on websites

Me Confused: What’s the Difference Between Mobile And Web Application Penetration Testing?

Welcome to part two of our Me Confused series. In our previous blog, we looked at the difference between vulnerability assessment and pen-testing. This time, we’ll talk about how mobile and web application penetration testing contrast from one another. So without any further ado, let’s get started:

Difference between mobile and web application penetration testing

It’s important to understand the app environment of mobile and website in order to learn about the difference in their penetration testing process. Typically, the mobile app environment is more complex and intricate than the web app environment as the latter can adapt to different platforms such as Android, iOS, and Windows.  

The mobile app penetration testing process involves creating an assessment of applications by looking for security risks in personal and business mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and their network in a corporate environment.

On the other hand, web app penetration testing assesses communication carried out in a corporate network.

Web app pen testing also includes checking the security of hosting servers such as web browsers and devices with authorised access (firewalls, network gateways, etc.). Web applications are more vulnerable as their data is stored remotely on the internet which is susceptible to server-side attacks.  

Is mobile pen testing more complicated than web testing?

Yes. Due to the complex nature of the app environment, mobile pen testing is more complicated than web testing. Due to personalisation and different type of applications—including native, mobile web, and hybrid—the code used in the developed apps for a single environment can be used in other environments.

Furthermore, pen-testing mobile apps involves using an extensive permutation of testing strategies to cover every possible angle that cybercriminals can use to hack into the app. In contrast, web applications are dependent on simulated scenarios in different browsers on a remote network.

Final words

While web apps are independent of platforms, they are connected to the Internet 24/7, which makes them more vulnerable to attacks. At the same time, mobile apps work in different operating systems which make the testing process challenging and monotonous at the same time.

In conclusion, both mobile and web app pen testing requires different approaches as they face unique challenges and risks pertinent to the cyber-attack. Learning about both processes will help you make better choices for your security systems. We hope that now you are clear about the difference between mobile and web application penetration testing.

For further reading: Introduction to Pen testing 

5 Best Practices For Choosing a Penetration Testing Company

Penetration testing has become more important than ever. Businesses who take pre-emptive measures to keep their sensitive data and servers secure find pen testing a great option to ensure the integrity of their system’s security, to meet compliance requirements, and decrease overall cyber security risks.

Here are five best practices for hiring the right penetration testing company:

Identify your pen testing needs

Before you start looking for penetration testing service providers, it’s important to establish your objectives and identify the type of pen testing services you need.

You should decide whether you need to hire pen test services for mobile apps, web applications, network, or perhaps conduct comprehensive pen test services for every platform.

This is important because each pen test services require specialised knowledge, tools, and expertise, which will also dictate the quality of results and costs of the services.

Assess the expertise of professionals

Once you identify your needs, it’s time to start looking for companies that offer pen testing services.

While you should opt for reputable pen testing companies, it’s important to learn about pen testers who will work on your project.

You should ideally look for professionals with experience and knowledge of the testing process.

Confidentiality and data security

During the pen testing process, the service provider has access to the confidential data of your company, and there’s no other way around it.

Therefore, it’s critical that you hire a company that can demonstrate that they will keep your data safe and secure during the engagement.

You certainly don’t want to entrust a third-party that cannot guarantee the confidentiality and security of the sensitive information of your business.

Ask for references

It’s always a good practice to ask for a couple of references before hiring a pen testing service provider. Ask for references of clients with similar size business and scope of the project.

This way, you can get valuable insights pertinent to their quality of service, professionalism, and turnaround times.

Moreover, this will also help you to determine whether the service provider will be able to fulfil the specific pen testing needs of your business.

Validate the pen testing methodology and process

Clarify the pen testing methodologies with your service provider to ensure that they follow industry-recognised pen testing practices.

You should ask for steps involved in the process, tools used, and the strategy that will be used for evaluation, among other important processes.

Typically, the company will offer a statement of work describing these details. This way, you will be able to ascertain the quality of work and level of thoroughness during the testing process.

When choosing a penetration testing company, these pointers will help you make the right call.

For sophisticated and trustworthy penetration testing services, get in touch with Lean Security at 61 (2) 8078 6952.

Our extensive range of cyber security services can help you identify all sorts of vulnerabilities present in your system and take timely measures to keep your sensitive information protected.

Effects of Malware on Websites [Infographics]