FAQ

A Penetration Test, also referred to as a “pentest”, a network security test designed to simulate an illegal hack. Pen Testing companies employ the same tactics as malicious hackers to weed out vulnerabilities in the network and see what data they can access. Once the simulated “hack” is completed, the pen testing company provides a full report for the company, alerting them to the weakness in their system, what data is vulnerable, and how to fix the issues.

In the pre-modern era, companies would have large safes to hold sensitive documents, files, and customer information. These safe would be heavily tested by manufacturers to ensure that they were uncrackable. In today’s world, we need to ensure the same safety measures for our digital documents as well. Because technology is constantly changing, existing security protocols may not cut it anymore for a company’s digital security. Therefore, they need to constantly be ensuring that their digital data is safe from hackers by regularly having their systems tested.

Pen testing companies use the same tactics that hackers do – and keep up to date with all new hacking tech and strategies to make sure that they can test any digital network against them.

With penetration tests, the pen testing company doesn’t just simulate a hack from outside the network – they also test against internal threats as well. For this reason, companies need to hire an unaffiliated third-party company to perform any security tests. An outsider pen testing company will be unbiased, and therefore can actually fully replicate and simulate hacks as a malicious entity would.

It’s our recommendation that companies schedule regular Pentests on an annual basis, but they should also be done after any major network change within the corporation. This also includes after major changes in board positions and layoffs. Disgruntled employees can be one of the main sources of information for hackers, so if there are mass layoffs or an executive that is forced out of the board, network security checks are definitely recommended.

Scheduled pentests are also imperative for a company to run as the technology and strategies that hackers employee are constantly changing, which means that even if everything was secure on your network last year, it may not be the same now. Pen Testing companies will use up-to-date strategies to test your network – both from internal and external threats – and let you know if there are any new security threats or vulnerabilities to the network.