It’s important for all organizations to periodically assess and test security vulnerabilities, to better evaluate risk and be ready to detect, prevent and respond to threats as they happen. Vulnerability assessments, penetration tests and Red Teams help you identify and prioritize security risks, which also improves your overall security posture.
Gartner recently released a detailed research report covering the use of penetration testing and Red Teams. The report describes the processes and suggests ways that organizations can use them to reduce risk.
Penetration Testing, or pen-testing, evaluates your organization’s ability to protect its networks, applications, endpoints and users from attempts to circumvent security controls for the purpose of gaining unauthorized access to protected assets. A penetration test doesn’t just reveal vulnerabilities, it also will actively exploit them.
In a pen-test, one or more specialists will mimic a real-world attack in an attempt to achieve a pre-defined objective (such as gaining access to unauthorized information through stolen user credentials). Pen-tests can be focused purely on cybersecurity, or can deliver more comprehensive assessments including a variety of targets, from system-wide attacks to networks, cloud, applications, wireless, social and more.
Organizations might choose to conduct pen-tests to:
- Intelligently manage vulnerabilities
- Avoid the cost of network downtime
- Meet regulatory requirements
- Preserve corporate image and customer loyalty
A Red Team exercise is basically a penetration test, but from a military perspective. The Red Team is the attacker - which assumes there is also a defender: your organization’s IT security group. The primary difference is that a pen-test is scope-based, and that scope may not involve strengthening the organization’s defense. It may also be conducted by a single individual. Red Teams, on the other hand, comprise multiple participants, conduct testing without the knowledge of your staff, and may also operate continuously or routinely.
Whether you opt for penetration testing, a Red Team, or both, vulnerability assessment and pen-testing doesn’t have to be difficult. Core Impact assesses and tests security vulnerabilities throughout your organization, providing visibility into the effectiveness of your endpoint defenses and pinpointing areas of risk. With Core Impact, Penetration and Red Team testers can safely replicate attacks that pivot across systems, devices, and applications, revealing how chains of exploitable vulnerabilities open paths to your organization’s mission-critical systems and data.
Core Impact provides:
- Multi-vector testing capabilities across network, web, and mobile with immediate risk remediation
- Peace of mind: ensures that vulnerabilities were remediated, and allows users to re-test exploited systems and upgrade agents
- A simple interface through which to test endpoint systems with commercial-grade client-side exploits in a controlled manner
- The ability to test more common vulnerability exploits than any other solution on the market today
If you need more in-depth protection assistance, Core Security Consulting Services (SCS) can also deliver comprehensive assessments and penetration testing for a variety of targets, from system-wide attacks to networks, cloud, applications, wireless and more.