Exploit types

  • Phishing, SQL, Brute Force DDOS

Teaming

  • Red teams, blue teams, purple teams

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Pen testing tools

open source, enterprise, or an arsenal

Vulnerability scanning

 

Pen testing services

 

Pen Test Pivoting

Fingers types with digital security icons

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing is a direct test of an application, a device, a website, an organization, and even the people that work at an organization. It first involves attempting to identify and then attempting to exploit different security weaknesses that can be found in these various areas.

When conducting a penetration test, most testers will develop some type of process, and repeat that same process on every engagement. As I think through the basics of penetration testing, I believe that process can be broken up into six steps.

Now, I’m not saying every tester follows every step or performs these steps in this exact order, however, this is a pretty good process to follow. Let’s take a closer look at each step.

IT Security

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.

Core Impact 18.1 release brought a ton of streamlined enhancements and new capabilities to the client-side vector in general, and phishing in particular. To be clear on terms, I consider phishing to be inducing a target to follow a link presented in an email for the purposes of capturing credentials for some system or another. Using an email to get a user to overtly run a compromised attachment or covertly execute an exploit payload falls under the broader client-side umbrella.

Core Impact 2017 R1 and Metasploit Pro are tools used to create multi-staged, real-world attacks to test enterprise security defenses. Organizations need improved visibility into the the holes in their enterprise network defenses. Pen Testing tools allow an organization to evaluate their ability to detect, prevent, and respond to attacks using multi-staged, real-world attacks.

Organization security

There are many reasons to penetration test your organization – and not just to adhere to compliance protocols. Nonetheless, sometimes that’s the routine we get caught in, isn’t it? We do it just because we have to, but we don’t leverage the findings from the tests to better secure our business.

Well, today’s the day we start leveraging and seeing the true value behind penetration testing. Take a look at these four ways in which you can benefit from penetration tests.

Business men shaking hands

Red Team Basics

The SANS definition of a Red Team is, “a process designed to detect network and system vulnerabilities and test security by taking an attacker-like approach to system/network/data access.”

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