Security testing is used to evaluate the effectiveness of security controls. The first step is to maximize the results of the pen tests, assessment or audits is to understand your test objectives. It involves defining the scope, methods of testing, and choose a qualified partner or internal teams to perform the tests. This includes hiring a security testing company to secure their businesses and apps from all aspects.
There are different types of penetration testing, that specify the different types of pen-tests that they want. These pen testing techniques include:
Social Engineering: One of the most commonly used is social engineering that is used for a broad range of malicious activities accomplished through human interactions. It uses psychological manipulation to convince users into making security mistakes or leaking sensitive information. Social engineering attacks can happen in one or more steps and so it is important that pen-testers use the right social-engineered ways to mitigate the risks associated with similar attacks. The attacker moves to gain the victim’s trust and provide a roadmap for actions that break security practices such as exposing sensitive information or gaining access to critical resources.
Physical Penetration Testing: This type of physical testing involves breaking into buildings and facilities. This also involves bypassing security controls like walls, locks, cameras and alarms. These are used to test an organization’s physical security assets and check if they work properly.
Network and Wireless Penetration Testing: Network penetration testing involves network scanning tools and testing network equipment. For instance, a network penetration tester may also try to alter network packets or leverage flaws in different security protocols. Some types of wireless pen testing require specialized equipment to intercept wireless protocols used by cars and door locks sensors, IoT, and devices.
Application Penetration Testing: Application penetration testing involves testing web and compiled apps installed on computers, virtual machines, mobile devices, IoT, and other specialized equipment for security flaws. Pen testers may leverage fuzzing, logic evaluation and reverse-engineering skills like scanning for security flaws on web applications.
Cloud Penetration Testing: Cloud pen-testing involves testing cloud-specific security controls and finds architecture flaws that an attacker can exploit in combination with web app penetration testing by a professional security testing company. Cloud pen testing can help testers in determining if the company is vulnerable to misconfigurations. Those pen tests need to validate that they are only attacking the systems of their clients due to the changing nature of cloud resources. Regardless of the category, they use to define your penetration test, make sure that their most critical systems are tested for security flaws if you are trying to improve security. If the testers are just trying to maintain compliance, the test might involve a different set of systems and types of attacks to meet the compliance standards. They also need to ensure that the person performing the test has the capabilities to perform effective tests.
Evaluate the Testing Teams: Pen-testers and security experts different tools to perform evaluations. These tools vary depending on the type of tests. Pen testers that depend only on automated tools provide the reports generated by the tools have only limited capacity to test their systems thoroughly. Testers with more experience often come from an IT background have the knowledge to perform more in-depth system analysis. Some companies and petesters specialize in researching new ways to exploit systems. Other firms invest in companies and pentesters that specialize in exploring more exploits and providing tools, podcasts, blogs, and training to share what they have learned with others. When a certain testing tool faults, the testers need to figure out how to resolve an issue. For instance, many websites use technologies that are not captured in a typical manner by using a simpler tool. In such a situation, they need to come up with another way to capture all the links in a website that they want to test.
Conclusion
Firms hire a security testing company to ensure that their business critical assets are secure from all aspects. It is important to have the right QA teams and testing tools to support their cause. It is not an easy task for organizations that are already facing many cyber-attacks and challenges to adhere to security standards. They should identify and resolve their issues earlier than the threat actors. Although challenging, yet it becomes extremely vital for companies to remain on the right track and steer their software testing efforts in the right direction.