Penetration testing, also known as pen testing, is basically a simulated cyberattack that is utilized to identify vulnerabilities and to plan for different defense measures.

Pen tests also boost employee security awareness, estimate the effectiveness of incident response plans, and help evaluate an organization’s compliance.

Testing your staff and processes against emerging cyber threats will help your organization avoid breaches and disruptions ensuring business continuity.

Common Types of Penetration Testing

When running a pen test, it is crucial to remember that there is no perfect test that fits all industries, environments, etc.

Here are some of the most common types of penetration tests.

Internal Pen Testing

It will allow you to assess your organization’s internal systems to find out how a hacker could move throughout your network.

External Pen Testing

It evaluates your Internet-facing systems to determine if there are exploitable vulnerabilities that may expose sensitive data or allow any unauthorized access.

Web Application Pen Test

It assesses your web application typically using a three-phase process:

Reconnaissance is the first phase where the testing team gathers crucial information such as the operating system, services, resources in use, etc.

Discovery is the second phase where the team attempts to identify the vulnerabilities of your web application.

Exploitation is the final phase where the testing team will leverage the discovered vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Wireless Pen Testing

This type of testing will allow you to identify the risks and vulnerabilities associated with your wireless network. The testing team will assess weaknesses such as network misconfigurations, unauthorized wireless devices, etc.

Physical Penetration Testing

The designated team will identify the risks and vulnerabilities to your organization’s physical security by attempting to gain access to a corporate physical device. The team will apply social engineering methods, badge cloning, etc.

When To Conduct a Penetration Test?

The most important time to conduct a penetration test is before a cybersecurity incident occurs.

Unfortunately, there are many organizations that don’t run such tests until after a security breach occurs, so after losing important data, intellectual property, and reputation.

NOTE! If your organization has experienced a breach, a remediation penetration test should be conducted to ensure the vulnerability is fixed.

Penetration tests should be conducted whenever changes are made – new additions to the network infrastructure or whenever key applications get important updates, or at least annually. Factors including company size, infrastructure, regulatory requirements, and emerging threats will determine the most appropriate frequency.

However, testing more often can highlight potential security risks more frequently, giving you a more comprehensive overview of your security status.

Who Performs Such Tests?

While pen testing can be conducted internally, external professionals can offer greater insight, as they have no prior knowledge of your system.

Under US legislation, organizations must sign a consent form outlining the exact area and depth of what is subject to test.

There are three different levels of testing, or methodologies:

1. Black Box – Zero access to the target environment
2. Grey Box – Limited access to the target environment
3. White Box – Administrator access to the target environment

After a Pen Test

1. Review the final report and discuss the findings with both the external penetration testing team and your in-house cybersecurity team.
2. Develop a cybersecurity strategy and a remediation plan to address the findings.
3. Make sure to repeat the tests and run further vulnerability scans to track the success and progress of your patches and upgrades over the long-term.

Pen test results provide detailed insights into the severity of any weakness in your environment. So, you will be able to get actionable findings to help you strengthen your systems’ security.

Acting on the results of pen tests as quickly as possible is crucial for avoiding downtime, disruption and any brand damage caused by potential breaches.

Conclusion

Penetration testing is about developing your organization’s long-term cybersecurity strategy, based on tested and patched real-world vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

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By utilizing vulnerability scanning tools, the cybersecurity team can easily identify security risks and attack vectors across your organization’s network, systems, hardware, and software.

Once vulnerabilities have been identified, the IT security team can patch them, close ports, reconfigure systems, etc.

The Benefits

Vulnerability scanning is an essential step in the vulnerability management lifecycle, which allows business executives to take a proactive approach and maintain a strong security for business systems, data, employees, and customers.

Unfortunately, data breaches are often the result of unpatched vulnerabilities, so identifying and eliminating these security gaps in time can save your organization from the hassle of slowly recovering from a cybersecurity incident.

Also, cybersecurity compliance and regulations demand secure systems. For instance, NIST, PCI DSS, and HIPAA specify regular vulnerability scanning in organizational systems and applications.

Types of Vulnerability Scans

There are complex vulnerability scanning tools able to perform multiple types of scans across several operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Windows, and scanning tools that serve certain niches.

Based on use case, here are some ways that scans may be categorized:

Internal Vulnerability Scans

These scans focus on your corporate network. They can identify risks that otherwise will leave you vulnerable if a hacker or piece of malware penetrates your network.

External Vulnerability Scans

These scans target your websites, ports, applications accessible to customers or other external users who can reach your IT ecosystem utilizing the Internet.

Environmental Scans

These are specialized scans available for different technology deployments, such as IoT devices, mobile devices, websites, cloud, etc.

Intrusive Vs. Non-Intrusive Scans

Non-intrusive scans identify vulnerabilities and provide reports that your IT security team can use to remediate the problems found.

On the other hand, intrusive scans will attempt to exploit the vulnerabilities they found. This can highlight the impact of a vulnerability and may also disrupt your operational systems and processes.

Credentialed Scans vs. Non-Credentialed Scans

Also known as authenticated and non-authenticated scans, these are increasingly popular categories of vulnerability scanning.

Credentialed scans require logging in with a set of credentials. These scans can discover many vulnerabilities that non-credentialed scans can’t.

On the other hand, non-authenticated scans do not require access to the systems they are scanning. While they can provide valuable insights, non-credentialed scans offer an incomplete picture over the security state of your systems.

Vulnerability Scanning Challenges

Scanning still needs human input or further integration to deliver the expected results.

Although the scanning process itself is automated, a cybersecurity professional must review the results, remediate the problems, eliminate, or mitigate the risks, etc.

Depending on the complexity of the credentialed scan, it may require access to many connected systems.

Therefore, automating the integration of these credentials with the scanner is critical.

A scan is a moment in time.

Because your systems are likely changing all the time, you should run vulnerability scans on a regular basis, as your IT ecosystem evolves.

A scan will only search for known vulnerabilities.

A scanning tool is only as good as its database of signatures and vulnerability information. So, keeping it updated is paramount.

Scanning Tool Capabilities

When analyzing the suitability of a vulnerability scanning tool for your organization, you should consider the following aspects:

Integrations

The vulnerability scanner should be able to integrate with a patch management solution, a bug tracking system, and other similar tools.

Updates

Your vulnerability scanner database should be regularly updated to include emerging vulnerabilities.

Actionable results

The scanner should provide you with detailed reports allowing your IT security team to remediate the problems as quickly as possible.

Quality and quantity of vulnerabilities

Your scanning tool should identify all vulnerabilities in a timely manner, while minimizing false positives and providing valuable information on flaws, threats, risks, and remediation options.

Conclusion

A vulnerability scanning tool is a professional solution utilized to identify and assess modern cybersecurity risks, providing your organization with the information it needs to take the right action to protect its assets and meet regulatory compliance and standards.

Digital trust represents the general expectation that digital services, technologies and the organizations providing them can create and maintain the highest level of integrity of all digital assets including data, applications, and infrastructure.

Data has become one of the most valuable assets of the modern age, so digital trust is not only an IT imperative but also a catalyst for growth. It can ensure transparency, accessibility, security, reliability, privacy, control, and ethics.

According to a recent research conducted by McKinsey, organizations leading with digital trust are 1.6 times more likely than the global average to see earnings growth rates of at least 10%.

Building digital trust

An interdisciplinary approach that includes people, process, governance, regulation, and technology is necessary for building digital trust.

Nowadays, organizations are beginning to utilize AI-based data monitoring tools integrated throughout the network that alert security teams and block further attempts.

Also, a robust blockchain-based system can help verify data ownership, transaction details, etc. The necessary mechanisms can be embedded within a smart contract.

Organizations implement multi-layer safeguards within their networks and communication channels or utilize data trusts for secure digital information-sharing.

Under these circumstances, other organizations will likely have greater confidence in sharing sensitive data, execute payments, etc.

Guiding principles of digital trust

Digital trust-driven transformation needs a set of principles organizations must follow for maximum efficiency:

• Make digital trust a core organizational value, from executives to new hires.
• Tie security to business goals. For instance, conduct regular assessments that align business imperatives to cybersecurity controls.
• Prioritize digital trust investments and establish security budgets.
• Address the nature of change proactively.
• Conduct organizational risk assessments to identify and address talent and skill gaps.

Cybersecurity is key.

Cybersecurity is probably the most important enabler for achieving long-term digital trust.

Enforce policies at all levels of the company to drive accountability for cybersecurity and privacy.

Start with what is measurable today and create a plan to add more sophisticated metrics to determine the business impact of all security activities.

Digital trust became even more important as users now rely more on online services than they did before the pandemic.

Digital trust has a significant impact on customer behavior, brand reputation, and customer loyalty.

The Customer Perspective

When customers trust a business, they feel comfortable sharing sensitive information, utilizing online services or making purchases. Strong data protection measures will encourage customers to engage in digital marketing and personalized services. Overall, digital trust plays an important role in modeling consumer behavior, including their willingness to share personal information.

The Brand Reputation Perspective

Reputation is incredibly important for any organization and digital trust can affect how people perceive a brand. If an organization at some point discloses a security or data management issue, it will harm the brand’s reputation and make customers less likely to trust it. However, if it prioritizes digital trust and applies strong security measures, it can enhance its reputation which will help the organization become an industry authority.

Unfortunately, organizations that don’t foster digital trust risk losing customers and missing out on growth opportunities.

Final Thoughts

Technology alone can’t build long-term trust.

Digital trust involves establishing a strong online reputation, transparency, and providing an exceptional customer experience. This includes being transparent about how customer data is collected and utilized, implementing security measures to protect against incidents, while ensuring that all online operations can be performed quickly and seamlessly.

It is crucial to know what security awareness training is and why your employees need such recurrent training.

Firstly, a security awareness program ensures that your staff is well informed about the latest types of threats, lowering the risk of a successful cyberattack while improving the overall security of your organization.

Avoid Data Breaches

According to recent studies, most breaches occur because of employee negligence. These are usually small mistakes that can cause irreversible losses.

Therefore, training which teaches employees how to spot suspicious emails is recommended. For instance, getting tens of emails on a daily business is a common thing, but differentiating between an informative email and a phishing email is crucial. There are cases where employees accidentally open attachments of phishing emails. A basic security awareness training would prevent that.

Increase Security Measures

Security awareness training always highlights the importance of monitoring and tracking of any sort of suspicious activity.

Prevent Downtime

In the unfortunate case of a breach, it can be costly and time consuming to repair and reinstate normal business operations. If your staff is familiar with cybersecurity basic principles and realize their role in keeping the organization secure, there are far less chances of a cyberattack to succeed.

Ensure Compliance

In case your organization handles sensitive or classified information and regulatory compliance is required, compliance violations are fineable.

Putting together a security awareness training plan will ensure your personnel understands the compliance policies and how to handle sensitive data, reducing the risk of a data breach.

Save Reputation

There are a few industries, for instance, healthcare, banking, and real estate, which can be easily trapped, and attackers often create confusion among potential victims. The right training can protect the reputation of your organization.

Develop Security Knowledge

Unfortunately, there are still many who don’t know much about security awareness and safety measures.

Nowadays, scams are presented in such a sophisticated manner that employees can easily fall into the trap. With the added knowledge, at least the basic safety measures will be followed keeping organizations safe. For better security and safety, there are service providers who can assist the organizations with the best support.

Also, without official training on security, different departments or locations of a business may utilize different principles. Security should be a cohesive process across all departments.

For the best results, training needs to be delivered in a consistent manner, and to fit employees’ busy schedules.

Save Time & Money

Organizations that have not trained their staff might face data loss/theft due to carelessness. Recovering from a data breach requires lots of money and time. It also tampers with the brand image of the company for a certain time, which can affect the target audience and their perception of your brand.

NOTE! According to Sophos’ State of Ransomware Report 2021, the average total cost of remediation from a ransomware attack was around $1.85 million.

Maintain Good Reputation

An organization with security-aware personnel will be able to maintain a good reputation and collaboration with its customers, since most c-level executives are reluctant to do business with an untrustworthy organization.

A business that is frequently subject to security incidents will eventually lose customers, regardless of the actual impact of any particular data breach.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, security awareness training will only improve the state of security of your organization.

At StratusPointIT, we offer comprehensive cybersecurity awareness solutions that help your employees protect themselves and your organization from various types of cyberattacks, including phishing, malware, pretexting, and other social engineering attacks.

Regular training will create better habits. When something becomes a habit, people tend to follow it. Make cybersecurity a priority and ensure your business stays security focused.