One of the smartest moves a company can make to validate its cyber security defenses is hiring a third-party provider of penetration testing services. If any cracks are revealed, external pentesters are more likely to find them than your in-house pentest experts.
The Definition of Penetration Testing Services
Penetration testing services are measures that involve simulating cyber attacks to detect loopholes in a computer system before evildoers can exploit them. Regular pentesting, typically performed by ethical hackers, allows companies to identify and manage vulnerabilities efficiently.
Looking for the Best Penetration Testing Services
How can you tell a pentesting provider is who they say they are? How can you be sure that their pentesting team doesn’t consist of inexperienced junior engineers who lack the essential skills to perform pentesting for your company?
- Stay away from the providers of cyber security testing services who offer the same low price to all clients. You’ll most probably get nothing else but an automated vulnerability scan. When evaluating the scope of work, a reliable provider always gathers the basic info about the company. The pricing quote accounts for multiple factors, such as the systems in place, the number of IP addresses used, etc.
- The best penetration test services are performed using the expertise of hacking communities who are always in the loop about current security trends and weaknesses.
- If an ill-equipped third-party provider promises to deliver penetration testing services in a few days, make sure you part ways with them. The average time for carrying out full-fledged manual penetration testing services is 1-3 weeks.
- A solid pentest company will explain the whole process in detail from the very start and will keep you updated on each step made. If any vulnerabilities get highlighted, you will be immediately notified about them.
- Look through the pentesting reports of the provider you are about to choose. If they run vulnerability scans instead of performing manual penetration testing services, their reports are likely to include a lot of false positives, which might make it challenging to decide which vulnerabilities should be mitigated in the first place.
- A top-notch provider of penetration testing services will give you a publicly verifiable pentest certification, which will let your customers see that you care about the security of your company.
It might seem as though there are hundreds of companies that deliver penetration testing services. In fact, only a few companies like Hacken have the required expertise to provide high-quality pentesting. Filter out the providers who offer automatic vulnerability scans that have nothing to do with real pentesting, and you will dramatically narrow your list of pentesting companies to choose from.
