It seems today to no longer be a question of if but when an organization will suffer a major breach. There were 3,205 compromises in 2023 — a 72% increase from 2021 — with 353,027,892 total victims. With threats only increasing in frequency and sophistication, organizations are more urgently looking at ways to modernize their security practices. One of these practices is penetration testing, a way to comprehensively stress test your systems and identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses that malicious actors can exploit.
However, with a crowded market of vendors and solutions, it can be challenging to identify a platform that truly meets the demands of today’s security landscape. By asking these five critical questions, organizations can ensure they select a modern pentesting platform that aligns with their security needs and provides the necessary capabilities to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Why You Need a Better Pentesting Platform
Pentesting helps security teams better understand their attack surface, vulnerabilities, risk, and security posture. Yet point-in-time, static testing conducted a few times a year is no longer sufficient to protect an organization with a constantly growing and dynamic attack surface. These tests may help at the moment, but quickly become outdated, and may not even have the scope needed for comprehensive coverage.
Attackers aren’t simply going to wait until security teams locate and remediate all their vulnerabilities before striking. The timeline from when an attacker becomes aware of a vulnerability to the time it’s exploited has accelerated — as fast as 2 minutes and 7 seconds. This is why ongoing protection against persistent threats involves continuous testing that provides a real-time view of system weaknesses. With a data breach costing an average of $4.45 million, and with the vulnerability-to-exploit timeline shrinking down to minutes, security teams need continuous visibility into their attack surface.
According to our “Voice of an In-House Pentester” report, continuous testing is the top capability security practitioners would add to their current pentesting program. Indeed, shifting to continuous testing capabilities provides a number of benefits. A continuous pentesting platform analyzes potential risks through both vulnerability scanning and pentesting, using continuously current data. It allows testing teams to identify lateral movements on low-risk vulnerabilities, and detect environmental changes to trigger testing. It also conducts testing using scalable methods, matching a growing attack surface.
Five Questions to Ask When Choosing a Pentesting Service
According to our report, one of the top factors that makes a pentesting program effective is having adequate tools and resources. Every security team looking to upgrade its pentesting capabilities should ask the following when looking for a new solution.
1. How do they perform their tests?
Start by learning more about how the vendor conducts their tests and which tests they perform. There are a variety of approaches to pentesting that include external testing, internal testing, social engineering testing, and web application testing. Are they proficient in the testing you want performed on your organization? Additionally, do they take a hybrid approach to pentesting that combines human expertise with automation and AI?
2. How does the vendor inform you of risks and discoveries?
Asking this question will allow you to assess the vendor’s ability to communicate findings in a timely and actionable manner. Will you receive real-time alerts and information about testing discoveries through a platform, emails, or other forms of messaging, or through static reports? If through a platform, can you access real-time visibility into what’s being tested and the findings?
3. How easily can your team work with the vendor?
A pentesting vendor needs to integrate with your systems, or else it’s money wasted. Evaluate the provider’s compatibility with your existing security tools and workflows and confirm that they can seamlessly integrate with your systems to streamline security operations and incident response.
4. What level of data access and manipulation does the vendor provide?
Determine if you can easily search, filter, and customize the testing data to suit your organization’s needs. Additionally, assess the vendor’s ability to provide historical access to past test results for trend analysis and control validation.
5. What’s the cost and value they provide?
Finally, look into the value offered for the cost, and if it aligns with your budget. They may structure their cost to be paid per vulnerability or per discovery, which may be hard for you to budget for. Additionally, ask if their package includes unlimited retesting as well.
Improving Pentesting to Preparing for the Future
By asking these three key questions, organizations can make informed decisions and choose a vendor that delivers the modern, dynamic security testing capabilities required to stay ahead of evolving threats. A robust solution will also help you build a pentesting program that takes into consideration the transparency, integration, and data accessibility needed to enhance your overall cybersecurity posture.
________________________
About Casey Cammilleri
Casey Cammilleri is the CEO and founder of Sprocket Security. He helps businesses outsmart cyber adversaries and prevent cybersecurity breaches. With a decade of exhilarating exploits under his belt, Casey emerged from the shadows of hacking to revolutionize the world of security. Over time, he has forged industry-defining security tools, implemented ingenious methodologies, and developed his wizardry into scalable software that is now the technology driving Sprocket Security. Dissatisfied with the status quo, Casey championed a radical transformation in the industry. He dares to challenge the norm, swapping the outdated annual ‘penetration test’ ritual for an unending cadence of dynamic, real-time security testing to ensure threats are constantly met with proactive defenses.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseycammilleri/
Join our LinkedIn group Information Security Community!
