Monday, April 6, 2015

What to look when hiring experts for security testing

Cyber criminals are making lot of buzz by attacking on top websites and bypassing their tight security to gain potential data. Data loss due to such activities in 2014 cost more than $400 billion level. And in case your website or network holds sensitive data such as credit cards data or other private credentials is lost, it will become nearly impossible to bring back the trust of your customers and keep the integrity of your business.

These cyber criminals are attacking directly to e-commerce websites, financial hubs, stoke exchanges, manufacturing, entertainment and leading IT companies. There are countless factors that can make your system vulnerable and allow access to different kind of data and let these hackers do the manipulation. But one complete vulnerability and penetration testing can help the company to know the vulnerabilities of a system. This kind of testing allows the company to take proactive actions that will further help them in protecting their system lot better. However, this is an ongoing war between hackers and companies and that is VAPT testing is introduced which is conducted on regular basis to keep things better. This kind of testing is comprised of two type of testing such as:

Vulnerability testing: The first thing to understand what kind of vulnerability already exists in the system in the IT architecture, the server, the network and the access and authentication process.

Penetration testing: next part is to understand the breaches in the security system and find these breaches in your defenses.

And to do VAPT testing specialized expertise are required including technical knowledge and experience. It is true that since long we have been learning OS vulnerabilities, but do you know that applications have their own vulnerabilities. Internet is being an open system and activities which were based on trust between its users and despite its millions of benefits many issues raised that needs serious discussions. The latest vulnerability found in the internet system is DNS vulnerability that is giving huge space to phishers. Wireless networks add another dimension to the problem, SQL injection, and session management exploitation is some of the techniques used to get into a system.

So, to beat such approach there is high urge find someone who is best in VAPT testing, but how you would know, here are few ways:
  • Always look for 3P capability in your chosen team. 3P’s means People, Processes and portfolio.
  • Always trust a team that has experience as it is the key to know their success rate.
  • Undergo thorough search to understand the key skills of your chosen team.
  • Professional people have their mark, so ask your peers or management teams or look into testimonials and verify them.
  • Understand their processes of testing and how they will organize every element.
  • Ask them about time as it is money so, never underestimate this great aspect.

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