Complementing Third-Party Services with a Penetration Testing Software Solution
Depending on your industry, you may need to contract professional penetration testing services to comply with government or industry regulations that require third-party testing (typically on an annual or biannual basis). These consultants offer hands-on expertise and analysis, but their results typically vary depending on each consulting firm’s particular skill set – and once the experts walk out the door, the assessment process ends. While these periodic third-party penetration tests may ensure regulatory compliance, they provide only one step toward guaranteeing network and application security, and represent a mere snapshot in time when the tests are being completed.
By supplementing or substituting third-party penetration testing engagements with a software solution, your organization can increase the frequency, scope and consistency of its security evaluations – often for less than the cost of a single consulting engagement. Regulatory requirements notwithstanding, such a product will enable you to make the best use of your penetration testing dollars and maintain a vigilant watch against emerging vulnerabilities on an ongoing basis.
Perform tests on a continuous basis
By regularly monitoring your networks, endpoints and web applications between consulting engagements, an in-house penetration testing solution enables you to ensure more consistently high levels of security.
Control the Testing Process
Automated penetration testing products free you from turning control of infrastructure and applications over to an outside party. You can therefore run and monitor all tests privately and securely, and share information regarding critical vulnerabilities with only those parties that absolutely need to know about them.
Increase the effectiveness of service providers
Automated penetration testing solutions provide your service providers with professionally developed, updated and comprehensive exploits that third-party testers can leverage to maximize the value of their consulting engagements.
Make the best use of your consulting budget
By automating the penetration testing process, a solution allows you to focus your consulting budget on making the most of professional recommendations, rather than on having them focus more time on completing unnecessary manual tasks.
Better prepare for consulting engagements
Bringing an automated penetration testing solution in-house allows you to remain up-to-date regarding your security posture, allowing you to play a more active, informed role in defining the scope of consulting services.
Determine the ROI of security services and solutions
By using an automated penetration testing solution on a regular basis, you can rapidly measure the effectiveness of other consulting engagements and security solutions by testing the efficacy of any defensive measures or policies they introduce.
