Different Types of Penetration Testing
What Are the Different Types of Penetration Testing?
To make sure your system is safe against threats, you should perform different types of penetration tests. If you want to get rid of security weaknesses that hackers can exploit, you must first identify vulnerabilities.
Monitoring systems with regular penetration tests will ensure absolute protection, so keep reading to find out everything about this testing.
What is the Purpose of Penetration Testing?
A penetration test is an attempt at breaking into a company’s network performed by IT security professionals. The purpose of this simulated cyberattack is to check network infrastructure for exploitable vulnerabilities.
Security controls like this one are necessary for all businesses, but they’re especially vital for banks, investment firms, and other financial companies. The finance sector is much more likely to be targeted by hackers who are trying to acquire and then sell people’s sensitive data.
Penetration tests are also used to check projects in development. When you identify flaws within the system and fix them in advance, you prevent any future misfortunes. Hence, after completing the “testing phase,” a pen tester needs to provide you with a detailed report on the findings.
You want to have clear guidelines on how to fix issues within your system and minimize (if not get rid of) your risk exposure. Taking steps toward resolving vulnerabilities is the main purpose of penetration testing.
Phases of a Penetration Test
1. Planning
You need to define the scope and goals of the pen test, gather the intelligence needed for the tester (IP addresses, domain and subdomain names, etc.) and create a general plan of action approved by both the testers and security control managers.
2. Scanning
3. Going In
4. Maintaining Access
5. Analysis
The most important part of pen testing is reporting on the findings. This report will be used by your security team to fix flaws in your system as soon as possible, so you need a comprehensive, detailed report, which should include:
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- Executive summary for strategic direction
- Detailed procedure of the hacking attempt
- Description of vulnerabilities found
- List of data that was accessed
- The response time
- Penetration tools and methods used
- Risks assessment
- Remediation suggestions
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Approaches to Penetration Testing
Penetration testing can be more intrusive than vulnerability scans. Depending on your staff’s training and ability to fight off an attack, you can choose to conduct an easier or a more serious penetration test. If you need to meet important deadlines or you’re having a big business project coming up, you don’t want to perform overly intrusive tests that can lead to a denial of service and reduce your overall productivity.
In most cases, a penetration tester will give you the option to inform your staff in advance about the security controls. However, it’s advisable to take a more spontaneous approach and check how your team responds to a “live” threat. This will allow you to see the response firsthand and fix the most dangerous vulnerabilities as soon as possible.
Naturally, you’d want to inform the upper management or chief information security officer in your company about the upcoming penetration test to avoid escalating the situation.
Depending on the severity of penetration tests and the amount of information provided by/for your staff, we can differentiate between three main approaches:
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- Black box penetration testing
- White box penetration testing
- Grey box penetration testing
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Black Box Penetration Testing
White Box Penetration Test
Grey Box Penetration Testing
Types of Penetration Tests
Network Penetration Test
Network service penetration testing (often called infrastructure testing) is used to identify dangerous vulnerabilities in the network infrastructure, which includes:
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- Servers
- Firewalls
- Switches
- Routers
- System hosts
- Printers
- Workstations
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Pen testers can focus on the internal network or external factors (targeting security flaws of internet infrastructure). Internal testing can include many tests, from firewall bypass testing to zone transfer testing. Sometimes a particular scenario is followed – for example, stealing credentials from an employee via a phishing attack and trying to access the network.
External penetration testing involves targeting external parts of the company (such as the company’s website or domain name servers) with the goal of accessing valuable company data. To perform any kind of network penetration testing, you need to set the number of internal and external IPs to be tested, the number of websites to be tested, etc.
Web Application Penetration Testing
Wireless Network Penetration Testing
Physical Penetration Tests
Social Engineering Tests
Since social engineering tests are testing the response to phishing emails and scams, you should only inform upper managers about the upcoming tests. Performing black box penetration testing might be more expensive, but it will provide you with more accurate predictions of your employees’ actions during a social engineering attack.
Social Engineering Tests
A client-side pen test is used to discover security vulnerabilities in client-side applications, including email providers, web browsers, software programs, etc. This type of penetration testing can prevent many serious attacks, such as malware infections, cross-site scripting, HTML injection, and others.
Cloud Penetration Testing
Cloud penetration testing is a simulation of the attack on your cloud provider. You want to make sure that your files are encrypted and secured from unauthorized access. Public cloud environments are more vulnerable to cyberattacks, so it’s recommended to use a secure cloud system tailored especially to your business.
Mobile Application Testing
Conclusion
Pen testing will boost your overall security efforts. Depending on your business objectives, you can benefit from application penetration testing, physical penetration testing, or something else. Every business is targeted differently, so it’s best to consult with cybersecurity professionals to find the best protection possible for your business.
Why risk everything and become a target for hackers? You’re risking not just the financial loss associated with data breaches, but your entire business reputation as well. Nobody will trust a business with their sensitive information if it’s constantly falling victim to cyberattacks. Not to mention, hefty lawsuits can create many problems if you’re not protecting your clients’ data. If you’re running a financial firm, stop worrying about hackers lurking and protect your system.
Get a Triada Networks’ cybersecurity package (with frequent pen tests!) that’s tailored to your needs. Schedule a free consultation today!