PEN Testing

Is Your Organization Secure?

No system is secure until it is tested for vulnerabilities

PEN Testing: Actively trying to breach an organization’s network with the intent to provide feedback on its vulnerabilities

What Is PEN Testing?

No system is secure until it is tested for vulnerabilities. And that’s exactly what ProStratus does. Commonly called PEN Testing or Penetration Testing, this approach is an active attempt to breach an organization’s network with the intent to provide feedback on the vulnerabilities that were exploited and to develop a plan of action to “plug the holes.”

Once requested, penetration tests are usually done without warning to give the organization no time to prepare employees. This is the best way to simulate an actual attack and gauge the effectiveness of both users and security controls.

Are there different types of penetration tests?

There are different types of tests that represent different methods to compromise your organization.

These testing methods are:

Social Engineering

This simulates common attempts to penetrate your organization by getting human beings to give away the “keys to the kingdom.”

This usually includes phishing emails, pretexting (asking seemingly innocuous questions over the phone to gain information to use later) and otherwise manipulating employees into doing something that would compromise business integrity.

Physical

These types of penetration attempts test the physical security measures of office buildings or other organizational structures.

A test might include attempting to access secure areas by presenting falsified credentials or by sneaking in through unlocked doors.

Once inside, testers might take notes of passwords written on sticky notes, or place observation devices, such as webcams, to garner further information.

These tests are less technical but are just as important for assessing the security resilience of an organization.

Wireless

This test targets wireless access to corporate data. The goal is to test configurations and access levels, as well as encryption protocols.

This battery of tests will also attempt to test the mobile devices of users, whether they connect to a secure corporate network or a guest network. This test seeks to reveal weaknesses in wireless structure and configuration by mimicking a threat actor simply being in range of the organizational wireless signal.

Web Based Apps

Web Based Applications

Most external attacks focus on web applications, as they are so commonly used by organizations. Whether it be on the server side or the client side, the vulnerabilities of many web applications are known factors and can easily be exploited by threat actors with the right tools.

Web applications offer a great threat to organizations as there are a variety of approaches that can be taken to compromise data. These include, but are not limited to, cross-scripting, poor encryption, and SQL injections.

Network Infrastructure

This is probably the most well-known penetration test, as it is commonly what people assume when they hear the word “hack.”

With a network infrastructure penetration test, there are a variety of approaches. This could include attempts at evading intrusion detection or compromising the anti-virus systems. It could also be initiated from within the network in order to test traffic monitoring protocols or end point protection of workstations.

These types of tests could also focus on network devices, like routers and smart switches, to determine if they are configured correctly or have known vulnerabilities that are exploitable.

Why would I want a PEN test?

The best way to determine the functional level of security within an organization is to have someone else hack it.
With a penetration test, the results end up being action items instead of a ransomware attack. ProStratus will help secure your network by doing our best to penetrate it, and then present you with our findings so that we can use that information together to build a more secure environment by fixing the vulnerabilities that were exposed.

No one is completely honest when they are assessing themselves. So having an unbiased partner do the testing will reveal a much more realistic picture about the actual state of cybersecurity within an organization.

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