What Kind Of Penetration Test Is The Right Fit For Your Business?

You might have heard your IT vendor or a regulatory examiner say the words “pen test” and how your organization might want to get one done, but what exactly is a pen test?

Penetration Tests:

Penetration tests, or pen tests, are simulated cybersecurity attacks to assess any vulnerabilities present at that time. They allow IT and security professionals to understand how well security controls work, to identify response systems, and if it can detect intruders and weaknesses.

The pen test is performed to discover vulnerabilities without harming your network or exposing your data. For the layman, it is a form of ethical hacking that helps improve your web security.

Objectives of Penetration Testing:

Penetration tests are performed to find potential breach sites and vulnerabilities, simulate cybersecurity attacks by penetrating weak systems, applications, and services with various tools, and to discover how much data can be accessed with a prolonged simulated attack.

Types of Penetration testing:

There are many different kinds of penetration tests, with each having a different method and scope. As the customer, you should understand what each type of test does to determine the best one for your business.

Some common types include:

External Network Penetration Test:

This is a black-box test that uses footprint analysis to find information about the network and organization available publicly, such as its IP addresses, ranges, and important personal information.

These are used to find potential vulnerabilities in the system.

Internal Network Penetration Test:

This uses a white or grey box designed to mimic how the user’s account is hacked.

Selecting the Right Penetration Test:

Penetration tests can be customized to search for vulnerabilities in mobile and web apps and wireless networks. Before choosing a penetration testing service provider, figure out which approach suits your organization best.

The tests can be customized in the following ways:

Black Box Tests:

Black box tests are objective security assessments performed without any knowledge of the tested network system, as seen by third parties. These test software security operations, instead of its structure, without damaging the network.

White box tests:

These are performed after a full understanding of the internal system and structural design to be tested and tests software for gaps in code and security.

Grey Box Tests:

As indicated by the name, grey box tests combine both black and white box testing features to evaluate the level of security from the perspective of an actual account user.

These tests allow deeper access into the software or product and give more information about the internal system from an outside and insider’s perspective.

Clearly, selecting the right testing approach is crucial for organizational success. Lean Security can help you understand your organizational testing needs and provide AI-powered web and mobile application testing services with state of the art technologies.

To find out more about penetration testing, contact us here or call us at +61 (2) 8078 6952 to book a consultation with our experts.

The Basics of Web Application Pen Testing

A penetration test (aka a pen test) is a cyber-attack performed on your computer system in a simulated environment to check for possible vulnerabilities. In the world of web application security, a pen test is used to augment a web application firewall (WAF).

What Does A Penetration Test Do?

Penetration testing involves attempting to breach multiple application systems like the application protocol interfaces (APIs) and frontend/backend servers to find vulnerabilities in the system, like incomplete inputs that are an easy target for code injection attacks.

The resulting insights from a penetration test can be used to improve your WAF security policies and fix any detected weaknesses.

Stages of Penetration Testing:

A pen test is performed in five stages. These are:

Planning and reconnaissance:

In the first stage, the testing aims and goals are defined, along with the systems that will be tested and the testing methods to be used. We also try to gather the information to help us understand how a target works and its potential weaknesses.

Scanning:

The next step involves understanding how a target application will react against different attack attempts. This can be done with:

·         Static analysis: Inspecting an application’s code to predict how it will behave while running, using tools to scan the entire code in one pass.

·         Dynamic analysis: Inspecting how an application’s code behaves while running in real-time.

Gaining Access:

This is when the attack is performed using web application attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting to find the target website’s vulnerabilities.

These vulnerabilities are then exploited by stealing data, stopping traffic, and more, finding out the damage they cause.

Maintaining Access:

In this phase, exploitation is prolonged to understand if the vulnerability allows the attack to gain deeper access. This is done to mimic advanced persistent threats that often stay in a system for months in an attempt to steal a business’ sensitive data.

Analysis:

Lastly, the test results are organized into a report that expands on specific vulnerabilities exploited and the sensitive data that testers gained access to. It also details the amount of time the pen tester could stay in the system without being detected.

This information helps security personnel to reconfigure the organization’s WAF settings and other security solutions to fix any vulnerabilities and protect against possible future threats.

Methods of Penetration testing:

Penetration testing can be done either externally, internally, targeted, blind, or double-blind.

To understand more about the significance of penetration testing, contact Lean Security. Our AI-powered web application penetration testing service helps uncover potential risks to security by using advanced methods. You can book a pen test for your organization by calling us at +61 (2) 8078 6952.

Remember, with web security; it’s better to be safe now than sorry tomorrow.

Top 4 Threats Online Gamers Need to be Wary Of (infographics)

Security Risk Assessment - Why Do You Need It

Security Challenges in Hybrid Cloud Environments

The hybrid cloud gives reliability and control of the private cloud and scalability and speed of the public cloud. That’s why more and more businesses are turning toward it. According to a 2019 survey, 85% percent of organizations consider the hybrid cloud an ideal cloud mode. 

According to IDC, 90% of the world's organizations will employ the hybrid cloud as their operating model. While the hybrid cloud is the most viable option, security challenges need to be considered to ensure a secure network. 

1.    Data Transfer

The hybrid cloud system uses infrastructure from two providers — private and public. They’re separated by public internet. Therefore, it poses a security threat, so it’s your responsibility to ensure that your data is safe when in transit. 

We advise that you encrypt your traffic to overcome this challenge. Use the latest encryption ciphers and standards, but don’t forget to outline your requirements depending on your business needs. Cloud vendors do provide with client-side encryption and Transport Layer Security to ensure that your data stays safe. 

2.    Authorization and Authentication

Authorization and authentication are vital in every business, but they need undivided attention when you have a hybrid cloud system. It would be best if you evaluated how your data will be accessed from the public cloud. For that, you can use access and identity management tools to establish identity federation. 

You can consider different single sign-on tools to consolidate the hybrid cloud access – especially if your hybrid cloud uses multiple on-premises and cloud accounts. You can choose public cloud management tools like Microsoft Azure Active Directory Seamless Single Sign-On, or AWS Single Sign-On.

3.    Compliance Concerns

Hybrid clouds can lead to significant compliance challenges concerning data movement. These challenges include GDPR compliance and loyalty to data sovereignty laws. In highly regulated industries, like finance, government, and healthcare, even a small blunder can charge you with hefty fines and lawsuits.

To ensure that your hybrid cloud complies with the law, begin by evaluating the cloud environment. Look at the bigger picture of the cloud for cybersecurity. There shouldn’t be any room for errors. Therefore, be cognizant of the compliance considerations with every step to your take to build the hybrid cloud. 

Looking for a Trusted Cybersecurity Company?

We are an online security services provider focusing on providing managed security services to clients in Gordon, NSW. Our services include web and mobile application penetration testing, API and IoT penetration testing, and web security audit. Contact us at+61-2-8078-6952 to learn more.