Pen Test Stages: Security Penetration Testing Steps Cyber Security Companies Take

Penetration testing enables you to simulate a cyber-attack against your system and detect exploitable vulnerabilities. Also termed ethical hacking, penetration testing works in a fashion similar to real-world hacking. It involves a few critical steps that rigorously check the system and detect loopholes that the company can exploit to determine the strength of its cybersecurity. Let us look at the various stages of pen testing to help build better awareness about it.

6 Steps that Cyber Security Companies take while During Penetration Testing

1. Test Planning

As the first and fundamental stage of the test, cybersecurity companies determine and define the test scope and objectives and gather general information about the targets during this process. Additionally, it involves identifying the systems that need to be addressed through the test and the appropriate testing method to use. This is a crucial step as it forms the base of the test and further its usefulness and value.

2. Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is a set of processes that includes Footprinting, Scanning, and Enumeration that discreetly discover and gather information about a particular system. During reconnaissance, cybersecurity companies collect initial data, calculate the network range, find open ports and access points, identify active machines, fingerprint the operating system, uncover services on ports, and map the network.

3. Scanning

The scanning process involves determining the response of the target system to different types of attack attempts. It is done through static analysis or dynamic analysis. Now, what are static analysis and dynamic analysis?

Static analysis involves inspecting the code of an application to project its behavior while running. It can help scan the entirety of the code in a single pass. On the other hand, dynamic analysis inspects the application’s code while running. Dynamic analysis proves a better and more helpful scanning method, as you get real-time insights about the performance of a particular application.

4. Get Access

This step enables ethical hackers to enter the system. It involves the use of web application attacks that include backdoors, cross-site scripting, SQL injections to expose the target system’s vulnerabilities. Once entered, testers attempt to exploit system vulnerabilities through traffic interception, privilege escalations, data theft, etc., to compute the real-time damage that all these activities can cause to the network.

5. Exploit the Vulnerabilities

After completing vulnerability assessment, cybersecurity experts employ various manual techniques and leverage their experience to perform multiple activities such as validation, intrusion, and exploitation of the vulnerabilities identified and assessed. Further, cybersecurity companies maintain access to check if a particular vulnerability is harmful enough to enable persistent presence in the target system and long enough to get in-depth access to it.

6. Review and Reporting

Depending on the vulnerabilities and a range of other factors, such as the company’s cybersecurity needs, the above process can continue for several days to weeks. However, once cybersecurity professionals complete it, they report the findings of the test. The report usually includes the origin of the test, the way ethical hackers found vulnerabilities, and how they exploited them. Additionally, the report also comprises testing methodologies, security testing, observations, and, further, corrective measures.

Hire Alliant Cybersecurity to Take the First Step Towards Enhancing Your Company’s Cybersecurity!

With several successful tests and results to its credit, Alliant Cybersecurity forms a proven penetration testing partner. The company employs the latest penetration testing methodologies and ethical hackers with extensive experience in penetration testing to deliver the correct observations, results, and further appropriate recommendations.

If you are looking to partner with a cybersecurity company for penetration testing, hire Alliant, and get the enhanced cybersecurity advantage for your organization. For more details, write to [email protected].