Penetration testing is a managed and controlled simulation of an actual invasion of the systems. It gives a clear idea and provides a realistic experience of the type of intrusions which can be done on your information systems. The way hackers attempts to break in is imitated to test the security in an effective way. During this test, all your defenses are put to a test to find out how your system detects intrusion and how effective are the security mechanisms. This will be evaluated by a skilled ethical attacker only this time you would have complete knowledge of what is happening in the testing process
Penetration Testing
A penetration test of has the following characteristics:
- It simulates real world attacks
- It explores vulnerabilities in networks, systems and applications
- It discovers the root cause of the attacks and controls it
- It provides mitigation of the vulnerabilities found
- It provides a risk management document for companies
- It helps the companies in better deployment of security resources
Hackers are always finding ways to penetrate in to your systems and applications. This can have major impact on the company’s business and reputation.
Penetration testing is not just about discovering flaws in the system and furnishing a report for us. People mostly mix the terms vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, while vulnerability assessment only scans and identify weaknesses in the systems, penetration testing uses those weaknesses to hack into those systems.
Our penetration testers will work with you to tailor the project scope, which will define which systems and networks to emphasize on. Our expert team will exploit the vulnerabilities which could affect your overall business and help you out in coming up with effective solutions. The main objective of our practitioners is to penetrate into your systems and find loopholes all possible means that an actual hacker might do and then fix those loopholes.
Penetration testing mimics the same procedures and strategies that malicious hackers use to invade into your systems, applications and networks. It is the most exhaustive way to find out the vulnerabilities as it replicates all those ways which an actual hacker uses to attack, only this time you know who is doing it
If you think about it in a simple way, penetration testing is like paying a security agent to see if he or she can break into your house and then tell you in detail how he or she did it. This way you would know exactly which parts of your house are safe and which parts are unprotected.
It is significant to understand that one pen test cannot make your systems safe forever, as technology changes every day, new vulnerabilities arise in existing systems. To have thorough security one requires persistent vigilance, which is why we focus on building long term relationships with our clients and not just providing you with a checklist of vulnerabilities but guarantee the best possible pen test which offers you a proficient, high end security audit customized according to your needs.
We offer three types of penetration testing:
White Box Testing In this test we are provided the server information, network details, operating system details, application details, protocols etc. by our client. The main purpose of this test is to discover the threats occurring internally in the company, which means the threat is coming from your own employees.
Black Box Testing In this test we are not provided any prior information regarding the networks, applications or systems. The main purpose of this test is to determine the threats occurring externally, and how external hackers would invade your systems.
Hybrid Testing This test is a mixture of both white box testing and black box testing. In this test we first perform the black box testing on your systems and then perform the white box testing.
External or Remote Network Penetration testing
External testing mainly emphasize on your publicly available resources of network which might lead you to a network compromise. This test can be performed with full or no discovery of the environment which is in question. A detailed analysis of your servers, routers, firewalls and applications would be done in this test. The first step of this test would be to test your publicly accessible information followed by network enumeration.
With the help of network enumeration we target the hosts and other related network security attacks. After this the assessment of open portals, services and other security issues takes place and the information that is gathered through this assessment is then used to gain grip into the environment. After taking hold of the environment the escalation of privileges takes place up till the point when the external environment is under control.
Onsite or Internal Network Penetration testing
With the help of internal on-site penetration testing the businesses gets sense of surety that all the required tasks are being performed safely on Internet. This assessment has a strong similarity in terms of the methodology used in assessment of external testing, although in this scenario engagement will take place within the WAN at physical zone or attached DMZ or at logical management zone.
In order to attach to internal network in depth knowledge in various areas is needed. The knowledge areas are not restricted to Policy, Architecture, implementation and Auditing but it included multiple business units and operating systems. At Tranchulas we possess the skill set having all the relevant knowledge areas.
The Internal network penetration test at Tranchulas possess a combination of internal network port and vulnerability scans, onsite visits, best practices uses across the industry and on-site meetings which facilitates in discussing the key findings and for addressing all the queries. The evaluation of current policies, procedures, physical and network security is done with the help of consultants who spends 2 to 3 days in the whole process. Every audit is made as per the requirements of customer. Tranchulas team works in association with your organization and will have the same rights as any of the users would have and will try to get access to the system which should not be made available at the level of user’s privilege. The purpose of this test will be to find out the level of effectiveness of the security access controls at your organization.