A Proven Finding: Professional Penetration Testing Improves Security
A lot of methods are proposed to go against enemies of a security system. Some go for research and understanding the enemy and its origins. While some opt for understanding the basic causes of the said infiltration and block such codes. However, there is a different method that is often overlooked but is really effective and that is attacking as the attackers do. This is where penetration testing comes into play.
You see, a system, no matter how much it boasts about its superiority and cutting edge barriers, can not be effective without actually pen test. Why? For the reason that through a pen test, a system will hold itself against it and people can actually see if it lives up to what it boasts about. This technique and method is extremely valuable and is definitely a must for any security system.
With the evolution of Internet nowadays, this method has become critical for the successful build-up of such information protection systems. This testing generally consists of a process of using tools that are intended for hacking and techniques that are contemporary to really prove how strong is the system really is through a pen test. Along with that, it also displays any potential weakness points of your system and by doing that, you are given the chance to improve on it especially if you have someone working for you that has undergone a penetration testing training.
Frankly, there isn’t a tangible to verify the claims of one vendor about the features it has except through penetration testing. It actually works both ways: a company can further boast about its claims by having a testing in public and posting the results to its customers and the other more negative note is a company’s product being downgraded because of a recent test being used on it.
You see, being a defender against malicious codes and security breaches, he must always put to mind the different ways the attacker might put him down or different ways the attack will use to exploit his weakness. But, by doing a penetration testing, you put yourself in the shoes of the attacker and see whether there is a weakness a system has that is big enough or small enough for the enemy to penetrate through. Doing it this way will definitely a lot of ground that the initial developers of the security system might not cover.
Another benefit that penetration testing training brings for your security system is that it can work around or be configured to work around your defenses to further deepen the level of difficulty. This is important because a system has what they called “allowed paths”. There paths or services that is being provided naturally by a certain system can often be taken advantage of these infiltrators and sometimes their way of entrance.
In order to further prove how important it is, a good analogy that can be used is when you think of a castle, a king and an enemy. The castle is your security system and that protects you, the king, from the enemy. The king has to go over everything in the castle from the walls to the gates, the sewers to the possible points the enemy can climb through just in order to ensure his protection while the enemy has to only find one single entry point of the castle and that is practically all he needs to plant a bomb inside that castle.
However, in a pen test, there are a lot of factors to be considered first before you can go on with your testing, including those are putting into mind the threats to the system or the information that is being risked at hand. In order to get the most significant results, you must be proactive and be one step ahead of the enemy by knowing first the types of threats you will likely face. As an example, if a server that has no private data or information on it will not be likely hacked to get information from it but likely be prone to vandalisms, hindrances to services while servers that hold confidential information to people’s bank accounts will definitely be prone to attacks from criminals that are well-planned.
The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) is a member-based organization that certifies individuals in cybersecurity, e-commerce and pen test. It is the owner and developer of 20 security certifications. EC-Council has trained over 90,000 security professionals and certified more than 40,000 members. These certifications are recognized worldwide and have received endorsements from various government agencies. They also offer trainings in penetration testing.
More information about EC-Council is available at www.eccouncil.org.
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